If It Wasn't for Your Love
by FebWriter
Summary: Disregards the finale entirely. Not for fans of Ted. After a head injury on their honeymoon wipes their wedding day completely from Barney's memory, Robin and Barney must deal with both that loss and the one that preceded it: Ted's pre-wedding betrayal of Barney by trying to convince Robin to come back to him.
1. Three Weeks Later

_**Throwing my hat in the ring with a fic to fix that disaster of a series finale. Not recommended for Ted fans, although I'll try to redeem him by the end of this story. Dedicated to Barney and Robin as portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris and Cobie Smulders. Barney and Robin are too meant to be and too awesome NOT to be eternally married and overall happy together well into their nineties. **_

* * *

The first thing Barney Stinson was aware of was the constant BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEPing noise. He frowned, trying to place it; it wasn't his travel alarm, or his cell phone. Could it possibly be a smoke detector? He hadn't noticed one in the room last night, but...

It was morning! It was his wedding day, his and Robin's wedding day! Wherever the beeping was coming from, thank God it woke him up, because he could_** not**_be late today of all days. No way. This was the day he and Robin would pledge their lives and love to each other forever, and he couldn't wait to see her walking down that aisle toward him.

Belatedly Barney realized his eyes were not yet open, and when he tried to open them, he found that someone had placed barbells on his eyelids. _Not cool, Ted_, he thought. Okay, yes, he'd had an insane amount to drink last night, but he was too awesome to be hung over on his wedding day. A couple of Red Bulls, a gallon of black coffee, and a steaming hot shower (by himself, alas) would fix him right up.

When Barney finally forced his eyes open, however, he was not in Ted's room at the Farhampton Inn. He was staring at the austere, antiseptic white walls of a hospital room. The infernal, constant BEEPING was a heartbeat monitor that was hooked up to his chest, and he was lying flat on his back in a hospital bed in one of those skimpy, no-fashion-sense-whatsoever hospital gowns. He discovered that his right arm was strapped to his chest, encased in plaster and covered with a sling.

Where was Robin, and what the hell had happened to him?

If this was Ted and Marshall's idea of a prank...

With great difficulty Barney turned his head to his right and discovered that he was wearing a neck brace, which immediately took him back to that horrible summer he spent recovering from being hit by a bus, when half the bones in his body were broken.

The sight that greeted him made his chest ache. Robin was curled into practically a fetal position into one of those uncomfortable hospital chairs pulled up right beside his bed. He could see the dried tracks of tears on her cheeks, and though her eyes were closed, he could also see that her eyelids were swollen. It looked like she had just fallen asleep...no, she had just cried herself to sleep, Barney silently corrected himself.

That did it. If this stupid prank of Ted and Marshall's had made Robin cry, then Barney was going to have set his two bros straight.

"Robin."

Her name came out as the barest whisper, which was when Barney realized that his mouth and throat felt like they were stuffed with cotton.

That bare whisper was enough, though. Robin instantly jolted awake when she heard Barney's hoarse under-his-breath murmur of her name, and she fell to her knees by his bed. "Barney," she said, half-sobbing. "You know who I am?"

"Of course I do," Barney rasped, his voice still that barely-there whisper. Robin sprang to her feet and fumbled for the tan plastic pitcher of ice water, splashing it all over the rolling table by the bed but still managing to get at least half the pitcher's contents into the plastic cup with the flexy straw sticking out of it. She held the cup and Barney drank deeply through the straw until he had managed to banish most of the cotton from his mouth and throat.

While Barney was drinking, the door to his room opened and Marshall and Lily entered, both looking worried and both carrying Starbucks to-go cups, though Lily's had tea in deference to her pregnancy. "He's awake?" Marshall asked hopefully. Lily, her hormones rioting because of her pregnancy, blinked back tears at the sight of Robin holding that cup of water that Barney was in the process of draining.

For the first time, Barney noticed the bags that Robin, Lily and Marshall all had under their eyes. It looked like Marshall hadn't shaved in a couple of days, and Lily's hair was almost as disheveled as Robin's entire appearance.

Barney released the straw from his lips, and Robin set the now-empty cup back on the rolling table by Barney's bed and fell to her knees once more, taking Barney's left hand in both of hers and holding on tightly. Barney looked up at her and started to try to move his right hand to touch her face, but he was thwarted by his cast, and by the fact that his arm was strapped to his chest. Marshall and Lily now stood on the left side of Barney's bed. "Barney," Robin said, her emotions still running high.

"You're Robin Scherbatsky," Barney told her. "You're my fiancée, and we're supposed to get married tonight. What the hell happened to me? At first I thought this was a prank that Ted and Marshall pulled, but clearly it's not. Where _is_ Ted, anyway?" For Barney had noticed that Ted was not in the room with the rest of them.

Robin, Lily and Marshall all three exchanged stricken looks. "Y-you don't remember?" Robin said, her face falling like a ruined soufflé. She had to force herself not to dissolve into tears again, and Lily's crying wasn't making it any easier.

Barney sent Marshall a look of mingled fear and worry. Marshall licked his lips and said, "Barney...you and Robin are already married. The wedding was three weeks ago. You were in a hang-gliding accident four days into your honeymoon."

"We're already married?" Barney asked, shocked. He looked at Robin. He didn't remember one second of the wedding! But how could that be? How could he not remember marrying the only woman he had ever truly loved, the most awesome woman in the world, the other half of his soul and all that clichéd crap that Ted had been spouting forever but that Barney now knew had a ring of truth to it after all. And where was Ted?

Lily wiped at her eyes and sent Robin a significant look. Lily knew very well why Barney didn't remember the wedding. God knew that she and Marshall and Robin had tried to block out what Ted had done and said. Lily and Marshall had discussed this very thing back at their hotel across the street from the hospital in the long days and nights of waiting for Barney to wake up while Robin kept constant vigil at her husband's side. Lily was the one who had first suggested that if Barney had any sort of amnesia, it might be related to the wedding, or at least to what Ted had done and said before the wedding. That kind of betrayal from the man Barney considered his best friend and best bro had shocked all four of them, but it had hurt Barney deeply. Robin had been so angry at Ted for his behavior before the wedding that she hadn't even wanted to talk about him. Her first call after the accident had been to Lily and Marshall; after that, she had called James, Loretta, and Jerome. She hadn't even considered calling Ted. As far as she knew, he had moved to Chicago the day after she and Barney got married, and that was the best thing for all of them. So Robin hadn't been very receptive to Lily's theory, after Marshall had convinced her to hear Lily out earlier that very day. But now Lily's theory was turning out to be true.

Barney, meanwhile, was staring at Robin's left hand, and sure enough, a solid gold wedding ring now resided on her ring finger, behind her engagement ring. Ted was the one who had told the group, at one point during the planning and lead-up to the wedding, that the proper way for a woman to wear her rings was to wear the wedding ring first, so that the wedding ring is closer to the heart, with the engagement ring on top of it, and that was the way Robin was wearing her wedding and engagement rings now.

Barney would never forget giving Robin her engagement ring, that December night on the roof of the WWN building. But he hated that he couldn't remember **marrying** Robin, putting that ring on her finger and having her put her ring on his finger as they vowed in front of their family and dearest friends to love each other awesomely and forever. And as much as he had wanted to marry Robin, he truly couldn't understand why he had no memory of their wedding.

Barney looked down at his left hand then, but Robin still held his hand in both of hers, so he couldn't see his fingers. Robin, following Barney's gaze and realizing what he was looking for, released his hand, then pulled a gold chain from beneath her blouse. As she reached behind herself to unclasp the necklace, the sunlight streaming through the window caught the shiny object dangling from the gold chain, making it glint: a solid gold man's wedding ring that matched the one Robin now wore.

When Robin had the chain off, she held it up, letting the ring slide off and land in her palm. Then she slid the ring onto the third finger of Barney's left hand, kissing the ring once it was back on his finger where it belonged.

Barney flexed his fingers, and the weight of the ring on his hand felt right.

The door to Barney's room opened then, and a gray-haired male doctor entered. "Ah, Mr. Stinson. Welcome back to the land of the living," he greeted Barney.

Barney noticed the doctor's name badge then. Dr. Joseph C. Everett, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. "Los Angeles?" he exclaimed. "We're in L.A.?" He looked at Robin.

"After you were stable enough to travel, I wanted the best in the world to do your surgery," Robin said. She didn't look very strong now, and Barney put his hand in hers again, threading his fingers through hers. She took comfort and strength from his fingers knotted through hers, and swallowing hard, she said, "You hit a tree, Barney. Your helmet split right in two. There was swelling in your brain, and I wasn't about to have you operated on in Belize, or in Mexico. So I brought you back here to the States, and to Cedars-Sinai. That was two weeks ago. The longest two weeks of my life."

"I need to examine Mr. Stinson," Dr. Everett interjected then, "so I'm going to have to ask the rest of you to step out, and yes, that includes you, Mrs. Stinson," he said as Robin started to protest. "I'll be brief, I promise."

Robin leaned down and kissed Barney, and he brought his left hand up to cup the back of her head, responding ardently to her kiss. Just as Robin was about to get on top of Barney in the bed, Dr. Everett loudly cleared his throat, and after all the turmoil of the past three weeks, Lily and Marshall exchanged a brief look of happiness at Robin and Barney's reunion. At least Barney and Robin's marriage wouldn't end tragically.

"Mrs. Stinson," Dr. Everett said gently.

Barney and Robin reluctantly disengaged from one another. "Why don't you see if you can score a nurse's uniform?" Barney said so only Robin could hear him. Robin smiled the smile she reserved for Barney alone, quickly pecked him on the lips again, and let Marshall and Lily usher her out of the room so Dr. Everett could examine Barney.

When they were in the hall, Marshall bought Robin a cup of crappy vending machine coffee. "He looks good, don't you think?" Robin asked Lily.

"He really does," Lily said, rubbing Robin's arm soothingly.

"I'm sure he's gonna be okay," Marshall added as he handed Robin the Styrofoam cup. She took a sip and winced but forced it down.

Then she looked at the closed door to Barney's hospital room. "It looks like you were right, Lily," she said.

"I didn't want to be," Lily said sadly. "And he's asked where Ted is, which proves he doesn't remember what happened right before the wedding either."

"Maybe we shouldn't tell him," Marshall said.

Lily and Robin both looked at him incredulously. "Not tell him?" Lily said.

"I wish we could get away with that, Marshall," Robin said. "But Barney and I vowed that we would never lie to each other."

"So you're going to break his heart?" Marshall challenged.

"I'm not the one who broke his heart, Ted is the one who broke his heart!" Robin reminded Marshall angrily. But then the anger drained out of her like water out of a bathtub. "I just...How are we supposed to tell Barney that his best friend, his best bro, Ted tried to convince me to leave Barney for him only moments before our wedding?"


	2. Putting the Pieces Together

When Dr. Everett called Robin, Marshall and Lily back into Barney's room after completing his examination of Barney, the first words out of his mouth were, "I'm pleased to be able to tell you that Mr. Stinson will make a full recovery." Robin let out a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding while Lily sagged against Marshall in relief and a smile of gratitude and thanks creased Marshall's face.

"There's just one thing, Doctor," Barney said seriously. "I don't remember my wedding day. When I first woke up, I thought today was my wedding day, but it happened three weeks ago. Whatever happened up here" he gestured to his head with his uninjured hand "to make me forget, how do we recover it? I **have** to be able to remember marrying Robin."

"The amnesia you're experiencing was caused by the head trauma when you collided with that tree in Belize while hang-gliding," Dr. Everett began.

"But that was, what, the fourth day of our honeymoon?" Barney asked, looking to Robin. At her nod, he said, "But I don't remember any of the honeymoon, and I don't remember anything about the wedding! Why is that? Is there something else going on that you're not telling me?" The heartbeat monitor went crazy then as Barney's heart rate increased in his agitation.

Robin couldn't stand seeing her beloved so distressed. "Barney," she said.

He looked at her, so vulnerable, so trusting, yet hopeful. "You know I'm not forgetting our wedding on purpose, right?" he asked her, an undercurrent of desperation in both his eyes and his voice. "The first day of our new life together, the official beginning of our awesomely ever after...I want to remember every single second of it, and I don't understand why I can't, but I swear to you, Robin, I'm not forgetting it because of any insecurities or doubts or fears or anything."

"I know, Barney," Robin rushed to assure and soothe him, sitting on the edge of his bed and taking his good hand in both of hers once more. "You not remembering our wedding is not your fault."

"I've waited so long to marry you," Barney said, looking deeply into Robin's eyes. "It finally happens and I can't remember anything about it."

In that instant, Lily got a wonderful, crazy idea that she vowed to herself to put into action as soon as she and Marshall got back to their hotel room and called home to check on Marvin, who was being watched by his Grandpa Mickey and Grandma Judy, Marshall's mother having dropped everything to fly to New York and help Lily's father take care of their grandson after Marshall and Lily got the call from Robin about Barney's accident.

Dr. Everett spoke again then, something about a brief interruption in the short/long-term memory transfer mechanism caused by the head trauma Barney sustained. "Doc, you're not answering my question," Barney said irritatedly. "All I want to know is, when will my memories of my wedding day come back?"

"They might not," Dr. Everett said.

"WHAT?!" Barney, Robin, and Marshall all exclaimed in unison.

"You mean that Barney might not ever remember our wedding?" Robin asked sadly.

"What if we show him pictures, and video, and tell him about it?" Marshall asked.

(Lily remained silent because she was plotting out her wonderful, crazy idea in her head and wasn't paying strict, undivided attention to the conversation between Marshall, Barney, Robin and Dr. Everett, and Marshall, Barney, and Robin were too distressed to notice that Lily wasn't as freaked out as the rest of them were.)

"Those might help jog Barney's memory, yes," Dr. Everett replied. He regarded Barney now. "But it's also possible that you might never remember your wedding day, Mr. Stinson."

"Challenge accepted," Barney declared then.

"I beg your pardon?" Dr. Everett asked with a puzzled frown.

"You just said that I might never remember the day I married Robin. I refuse to believe that. You have sent me a challenge, Dr. Everett, and I accept it: to remember Robin's and my wedding day, no matter what it takes," Barney said. He looked at Robin. "Maybe the video's not done yet, but there have got to be pictures. Get me my phone and I'll call my guy and have him get the pictures and FedEx them here. We can have them by tomorrow morning."

"Mr. Stinson, while you will make a full recovery, you're not fully recovered **yet**," Dr. Everett said then, emphasis on 'yet.' "You are recovering from a concussion and brain surgery, you have a broken collarbone and broken arm and several cracked ribs. The only injuries of yours that have healed, for the most part, are the black eyes and facial bruising you sustained. You'll remain here at Cedars-Sinai for at least another five days before I will even consider discharging you."

"Mere details," Barney said airily. "I have a life to begin and a wedding to remember, and as long as I have to stay in here, I'm going to focus all of my energy on that."

Robin spoke now. "You're definitely not kicking me out of here now that Barney's awake," she said firmly, resolutely.

"I wouldn't dream of trying to do that, Mrs. Stinson," Dr. Everett replied. Barney smiled wistfully at hearing Robin referred to as 'Mrs. Stinson.' _Why can't I remember,_ he wondered. "I'll be back to check on you again later, Mr. Stinson."

After Dr. Everett left, Barney said, "So, where's Ted? If he hooked up with some hot nurse, then I'll give him a pass for not being here, but if he's still in Chicago, then I want him on the next flight out of O'Hare. He should have been here by now, new life in Chicago or not."

It was the looks that Robin, Lily and Marshall exchanged that gave it away. Barney noticed how uncomfortable they all looked, the way Marshall suddenly became very interested in the ceiling, and the way Lily and Robin were having one heck of a disagreement with their eyes, Lily's wide and emotional and Robin's narrow and filled with anger and disgust.

"What did Ted do?" Barney asked, and that got all three of them looking at him again. Lily looked incredibly apprehensive, Marshall looked like a deer caught in high beam headlights, and Robin...Robin looked resigned, and sadder than he'd ever seen her look in all the years they had known each other.

Robin felt angry at Ted all over again, but more than that, she hurt for Barney. She hated that he couldn't remember their wedding just as much as he did, because in spite of what Ted did before the ceremony, they had still had a beautiful wedding and a kickass reception. And they had already done a postmortem on Ted's betrayal the day after the wedding, which Barney couldn't remember either. It was so terribly unfair to make Barney relive those awful moments, to make him realize all over again that his best friend was willing, even eager, to stab him in the back and take the only woman he truly loved enough to marry, the only woman he had ever burned _The Playbook _for, the one and only woman in the world who, by his own admission, had a hold on his heart that he could not break if he wanted to and that he was hopelessly, irretrievably in love with, away from him.

"Whatever it was, it couldn't have been **that** bad," Barney said, wondering what they weren't telling him, wondering why Marshall and Lily both looked as sad as Robin now. Barney looked at Robin again, focused on her. "Even when Ted cut me out of his life after he found out you and I were first together, we got past that in a few weeks. I mean, yeah, I had to get hit by a bus to seal the deal..." He cracked a smile, but neither Lily nor Robin did, and Marshall's ghost of a smile was, next to the look in Robin's eyes, the saddest thing Barney had ever seen.

"No, you didn't," Robin said softly, sadly. "I'm not even sure anymore if Ted ever wanted to get past it. Maybe he tried; I'm not sure about that anymore, either. Or maybe he just wanted to believe that he did get past it, that he could get past it, and he definitely wanted you to believe that he did and could get past it. But no, Barney, Ted never got past the fact that you and I fell in love. He never got past the fact that what we have is real, and that we made a real commitment to each other."

Barney frowned, concentrating hard, trying to remember, trying to make sense of what Robin had just said.

And then a memory came to him; not a memory of his and Robin's wedding, or whatever Ted had obviously done before it that Robin, Marshall and Lily were all clearly so reluctant to tell him, but of the weekend before the wedding...of the beach in Farhampton...of Barney confronting Ted about being in Central Park with Robin when she was looking for the locket she had buried years ago and how Ted felt something when he held Robin's hand that day...of Ted admitting that he still had feelings for Robin.

But Ted had sworn to Barney on that beach that he would never act on those feelings, that he would never hurt Barney that way.

With a sick feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach, Barney swallowed hard and focused on his wife and his friends, barely able to stand the sadness in those three pairs of eyes. "He said he still had feelings for you, but he promised me that he wouldn't act on them," Barney said in a low, urgent voice. "He swore that he would never do anything to hurt me."

"He lied," Robin said bitterly.

"He wanted to believe it," Marshall said. "He wanted to believe that he wouldn't act on his feelings, and that he would never do anything to hurt you, Barney."

"Ted-" Barney faltered, barely able to put the thought into words, because the thought is devastating enough to him, but somehow giving voice to it makes it real in a way that he can't fathom because he can't remember exactly what it was that Ted did to go back on his word. "Ted broke his promise," Barney finished thickly.

Hope flared in Robin's eyes then. "You remember?" she asked, both hoping he remembered on his own and wishing they could all forget as completely as Barney had when he smashed into that tree in Belize.

"No," Barney said. "No, I don't remember."

Robin looked confused. "Then how did you-" she started to ask.

"On the beach. I talked with Ted on the beach the day before the wedding," Barney said. He looked at Marshall. "Marshall, you were there."

Marshall's lips set in a grim line. "Yes," he said, remembering now too.

"Your locket," Barney said, which made Robin's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. The words came tumbling out of Barney then, how he had seen Robin and Ted in the mud in the park, holding hands, and how he had finally confronted Ted on the beach, with Marshall present via Skype, and how Ted had admitted that he still had feelings for Robin but had sworn he wouldn't hurt Barney by acting on them.

"I should have come as soon as you called," Barney said, berating himself all over again for not being there for Robin when she needed him. "It was just a stupid laser tag game with your dad. I should have dropped everything and gone straight to you. I just...I did get there. I was late, but I was there."

Robin was shocked, because she hadn't known that Barney had been in the park that day and seen her and Ted. "I didn't feel anything when Ted was holding my hand," she assured Barney. "I haven't felt anything but strictly platonic friendship for Ted for years. I was never as into Ted as he was into me." _And that's the problem,_ she thought wryly.

"I know," Barney said. "I know that, Robin." He looked to Marshall and Lily, who now wore identical looks of grim determination. "I think you'd better tell me exactly what Ted did that I don't remember," he said.

Robin exchanged one last look with Marshall and Lily before turning back to focus completely on Barney. Even though he didn't remember, they had vowed to always be honest with each other. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"It's not your fault," Barney told her.

"No, but this is going to hurt you, and for that, I am so very sorry, Barney," she said regretfully.

Then, with a deep breath to fortify her, Robin began to recount the moments before the wedding...the moments when Ted had thrown their friendship completely out the window in a last-ditch, desperate Hail Mary attempt to get what he felt should have been his all along: Robin.


	3. What Ted Did

_**Thank you for all of the support in the form of reviews, favorites, and follows. They, and you, are all greatly appreciated. This chapter seriously departs from canon in that Ted proves in this story, as one of my reviewers said, that he is much more into Robin than she was ever into him, so their conversation in the bride's room does not include a freakout on Robin's part. In my headcanon, Robin's had her freakout already, over the missing locket, which Ted also does not have Barney give to Robin. Be forewarned, Ted comes off looking really bad in this chapter, but I never believed, even in episodes like "Sunrise," that he truly let go of Robin, and this is the result, at least from my point of view. Now, without further ado...**_

* * *

Robin's phone binged with an incoming text message. She eagerly grabbed her iPhone from the table in front of the mirror, hoping the message was from Barney, and sure enough, it was.

Barney: Is it time yet?

Robin: Almost.

Barney: I haven't seen you all day. I miss you. And I'm not Tedding out when I say that.

Robin: I miss you too. Maybe we could sneak out and see each other?

Barney: Lily and Marshall are guarding me like a pair of pit bulls. And I can just hear Ted going on and on about how it's bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the ceremony.

Robin: We make our own luck.

Barney: That we do.

Robin: Hey, where is Ted? Is he with you guys?

Barney: No. Haven't seen him in a couple hours. I thought maybe he was with you.

Robin: No. I haven't seen him all day either. Just Lily and Marshall. Does he have the rings?

Barney: Marshall has them. He has to give them to the ring bearer.

Barney: Damn autocorrect. The ring bear.

Robin: You mean like a teddy bear, like Lily's Feely the Share Bear, right?

Barney: I reveal nothing ahead of time.

A knock sounded at the door to the bride's room then. "Robin?" Ted called.

Robin: Ted's here. Guess I'd better go.

Barney: I'll see you at the altar. I'll be the devastatingly handsome man in the Armani tux with the biggest smile in the world on his face.

Robin: I love you, Barney.

Barney: I love you more.

Ted knocked again. "Robin?"

Robin set her phone down. "Come in," she called.

Ted opened the door and entered the bride's room, and his breath caught at the sight of Robin in her wedding dress and veil. "Robin," he said softly. "You are a vision."

Robin beamed. "Thanks," she said. "Have you seen Barney? I know Marshall and Lily are with him right now."

"No, I haven't seen Barney," Ted said. "But speaking of Barney..." Ted trailed off, and looked intently at Robin.

"Barney," Robin said happily, not even trying to stop the mile-wide grin from taking over her entire face. She had never thought she would be one of those giddy brides, but she checked her watch as surreptitiously as she could. Fifteen minutes to zero hour, and she could not wait to walk down that aisle and become Barney's wife. Today was the official start of their awesomely ever after, as Barney had taken to referring to their married life. Forcing herself to focus on Ted, she asked,"What about Barney?"

Ted was still giving Robin that intent look, his brown eyes serious and intense and laser focused on her. "You're really sure about him? You're really sure that marrying him is what you want?"

"Yes," Robin said, tilting her head in confusion. "What is this about, Ted?"

In reply, Ted reached into the inside jacket pocket of his tux and pulled out Robin's locket, the one she had buried in Central Park years ago and forgotten that she and Lily had gone back and dug up because Robin was three sheets to the wind when they'd done it. Robin's grin faded as Ted held the locket out to her. "You had it? How did you get it?" she asked, confused.

"You and Lily went back and dug it up a few years ago, but you were kind of drunk at the time and didn't remember doing it," Ted said.

"So you found it and kept it all this time?" Robin asked. "When I asked you to help me find it, why didn't you tell me that you had it?" And suddenly, Robin knew where this was going. It was the blue French horn all over again.

"I didn't actually know I had it until Lily told me," Ted said. "And then I didn't actually have it. I had to track it down. I thought Stella took it, but Victoria had it, so she sent it back to me from Germany, but Jeanette intercepted it and threw it in the river, so I dove in and recovered it and here it is. Here's the sign you were looking for."

Now Robin did have butterflies in her stomach, but they had nothing to do with marrying Barney. "Ted," she said, her tone pleading. "We hashed this all out on the beach. And you lied to me about never contacting your ex-girlfriends."

"But I did it for you, Robin! I did it for us," Ted said earnestly.

"Ted, there **is **no 'us'!" Robin exclaimed. "There hasn't been an 'us' since 2007, and we made a terrible 'us.'"

Ted went on as if he hadn't even heard Robin. "You're The One, Robin," he said. "You always have been, and you always will be." Since Robin had refused to take the locket, Ted, still clutching it in his hand, got down on one knee. Looking up at Robin, he held up the locket, since he didn't have a ring. "Robin, don't marry Barney. Marry me instead."

"Oh my god," Robin said, horrified. "Are you drunk? Did you steal another bottle of Glen MacKenna? Have you been 'eating sandwiches' behind our backs?"

It was at that moment that another knock came at the door, and then the door swung open, to reveal a beaming Barney. "I thought I'd never give Marshall and Lily the slip!" he exclaimed. "We only have a minute, though, so-Ted?" Like Robin before him, Barney's smile died when he saw Ted down on one knee at Robin's feet.

"I'm not drunk, and I haven't been 'eating sandwiches,'" Ted said, ignoring Barney for the moment. "I've never been more serious about anything in my life. You're my number one relationship, Robin. Come to Chicago with me and be my wife. There's a job waiting for you at the World Wide News bureau there."

Robin looked at Barney, panicked. "I didn't encourage this," she told him urgently, firmly. "This is...I don't know _**what**_ the hell this is, but this is **not** what I want." She looked at Ted then. "And how do you know there's a job at the Chicago bureau?"

"I might have...sort of...called and asked them," Ted said haltingly. "Robin, this thing with you and Barney is just going to end badly again. You broke up before."

"'This thing'?" Barney asked, deeply insulted. "'This thing'? It's our **life,** Ted! Our life **together**! Robin and I are not going to break up again. This is it, for both of us. I love her, and she loves me, and it's not going to end this time."

"I can love you better!" Ted stubbornly insisted to Robin. "I **do** love you better, Robin. It's supposed to be you and me. I'm the better man."

"You did not just say you're the better man," Robin said incredulously.

"Yes, I did, because I am. My number of sexual partners isn't in the triple digits. I've never lied to you-"

"You lied about my locket. You lied about not being in contact with your ex-girlfriends. You lied when you said that you had let go of me!" Robin exclaimed.

"And Robin and I are about a lot more than sex. It's an insult to her that you think we're not," Barney said angrily.

"The first thing you said when I pointed her out to you at McLaren's was 'You know she likes it dirty.' I'm supposed to believe that's changed?" Ted challenged Barney.

"Yes!" Barney shouted. "Is it so impossible to believe that I am in love with Robin, and that loving her the way I do changed me?" Barney asked.

Before Ted could answer that, Marshall and Lily stuck their heads in the doorway. "Barney, you're not supposed to see the bride before the wedding!" Lily scolded.

Barney barked out a short, humorless laugh. "We've got bigger problems than that, Lily," he said.

Then Lily and Marshall both noticed Ted down on one knee in front of Robin. "Oh no you didn't," Lily said in horror.

"Ted, get up," Robin ordered. Marshall and Lily hurried into the room, and Marshall closed the door behind them.

"Not until you give me an answer," Ted insisted.

"No," Robin replied firmly, certainly. "No, Ted, I will not marry you. No, Ted, I will not leave Barney for you. No, Ted, I don't love you."

"Well, why not?" Ted asked as he finally got to his feet. "You and I together makes a lot more sense than you and Barney together."

"Only to you," Robin said. "And only in your head." She sighed. "Ted, you have always had this image of what you think I should want and who you think I should be, and you always try to push me to want those things and to want the kind of life that you want. But I don't. I never did, and I never will." Now Robin was the one who was looking at Ted intently. "You and I are never going to happen, Ted. I don't love you. I love Barney, and I am marrying him tonight. And since you clearly have not accepted that, you have to go. You have to get out of our lives and stay out until you can truly let go of this fantasy for good. My life is with Barney, and it isn't healthy for any of us to have you pining for your fantasy image of me and obsessing over why I love Barney and not you and why I married Barney and not you."

"You can't mean that," Ted said.

"You're trying to break up my wedding five minutes before I walk down the aisle!" Robin exclaimed.

"I had to say something!" Ted exclaimed. "It was either do it here, or wait until the minister asked me to speak now or forever hold my peace. I just couldn't forever hold my peace."

"Are we supposed to be grateful that you did this here instead of in the church in front of everybody?" Barney asked. "And were we **ever** really friends, Ted? Or was I just a one-note joke to you? Just an empty suit with no feelings and no heart and no soul, a guy who would bang anything female and willing but who could never want what you've been spouting off about the entire time we've all known you: marriage and a life with the one woman who makes you happy and makes you the best version of yourself? Did it ever occur to you that I dissed that all the time and put it down all the time precisely **because** I thought I'd never find it, and deep down that thought hurt me more than anything ever has...until now?" Everyone was silent for a beat. "You know what? Don't answer that. Neither answer is good, and honestly? I don't want to know for sure."

Ted looked from Robin to Barney to Marshall and Lily, then back to Robin. "You're really sure about this? About Barney?" he asked.

"I am," Robin said. "And I'm also sure that this can't continue. I meant it, Ted. I don't want you here. Not anymore."

Barney crossed the room in three strides and yanked the boutonniere from Ted's lapel. "I agree with Robin," he said. "You're fired as best man, Ted...and as best friend. I can't be friends, I can't be bros, with a man who so obviously wants my wife for his own, and clearly doesn't care about my feelings, or even about her feelings."

"We never really worked, Ted," Robin said. "You wanted things from me that I couldn't give you. I knew from the start that we weren't right for each other. You want the white picket fence and the house in the suburbs and the 2.5 kids. If it was politically correct still, you'd want me to get you your pipe and slippers when you walk through the front door every night. Barney loves me for who I am, faults and issues and all. He's not trying to change me into this idealized version of me that lives in his head. And I love him for who he is, faults and issues and all, and I'm not trying to change him into some idealized version of him that lives in my head."

"I can be what you need!" Ted insisted desperately as he saw his last chance with the woman he had convinced himself he was in love with and was the one for him since he had first spotted her across the crowded McLaren's almost eight years ago. "I can make sacrifices!"

"Really?" Robin asked. "You can give up kids, and a house in the suburbs?" When Ted had no reply to that, Robin said, "We have always wanted different things. You were always way more into me than I was into you. And frankly, you always made me feel like I wasn't enough for you. I felt like I had to try to be something I'm not, something I could never be, to try to make you happy, but then I would have been miserable. And that's not love, Ted. I know that now. That is not love, and neither is one person making all the sacrifices for somebody else."

"So that's just it?" Ted asked. "It's just over?"

"It was over seven years ago!" Robin exclaimed frustratedly. She deeply resented Ted for doing this now...for doing this at all. So did Barney, who was also deeply hurt and feeling more betrayed than he had ever felt before by what Ted had just done and said.

Marshall stepped forward then and took Ted by the arm. "Come on, Ted. It's time for you to leave." He began slowly propelling Ted toward the door, which Lily hurried to open.

"You're throwing me out of your lives?" Ted asked, stunned.

"Ted, clearly you need to get over Robin for real. You've been fooling yourself and all of us for years, and it has to stop now," Lily said in her best teacher voice.

"We're not throwing you out of our lives," Marshall said. "But things are changing for all of us. Lily and I are having another baby and moving to Italy for a year...Barney and Robin are getting married...you're moving to Chicago in the morning." Marshall paused, then went on, "Ever since I told you I was going to propose to Lily, you've been on this quest to find The One for you. But Ted, you have to accept that it's not Robin. And on some level, you must know this; otherwise you wouldn't have taken the job in Chicago."

Ted looked at Robin and Barney, who were now standing side by side, Barney's arm around Robin's shoulders, the two of them looking blindsided. "Barney...Robin..." Ted said.

"You've said everything there is to say," Barney said, biting off the words. "It's time for you to leave. And don't bother contacting Robin or me again. Not until you've thought long and hard and gotten your head on straight. I thought you were my friend, Ted, but clearly I was wrong. I'm beginning to think I didn't know you at all, and I'm sure now that you didn't know me. And maybe some of that was my fault, because I didn't let you know the real me, but knowing that you expect the worst of me, that you expect, that you don't want, Robin and me to make it..." He trailed off and shook his head, a stony expression on his face. "Just go."

"Barney's right, Ted," Robin added. "I'll always be grateful to you for bringing Barney into my life, but if you can't accept that he's the man I love and my husband, then you're not the man I thought you were, either...and I can't be friends with someone who is unhealthily obsessed with me and completely disregards not just how I feel but how the most important person in the world to me feels." Robin looked to Marshall then. "Marshall, will you be my best man?" she asked.

"Will you be my best man too?" Barney asked.

"Yes," Marshall said.

"Your first duty as best man is to get Ted out of here," Barney said. He walked over and gave the boutonniere he had pulled from Ted's jacket to Marshall. "Your second duty is to find William Zabka and tell him that he's now a groomsman and give him this to wear."

"I'll take care of it all, guys," Marshall promised. "Come on, Ted."

"Where?" Ted asked.

"To check out of the Farhampton Inn and get on the train back to New York," Lily told him. "You must have a million things to do before your flight in the morning."

Ted nodded stoically. "All right," he said. "If you want me gone, I'll go. But Robin..."

"Ted, don't," Robin said, holding up one hand.

"I'll always love you, Robin," Ted said.

Robin just shook her head sadly. "Goodbye, Ted," she said.

Marshall escorted Ted out the door, and Lily looked from their retreating figures to Barney and Robin. "I'm just gonna give you guys a minute and make sure that Ted actually leaves," she said.

"Thanks, Lily," Robin said as Lily left, closing the door behind her.

When they were alone, Robin said, "I did nothing to encourage that."

"I know," Barney said. "But I have a proposition for you: we don't let what Ted did ruin the moment we've been waiting for for so long, and we talk about him later, because I want to marry you, Robin Scherbatsky, more than I've ever wanted anything in my life."

"And I want to marry you, Barney Stinson, more than I've ever wanted anything in my life," Robin replied. "Yes, we're going to need to talk about Ted, but later. Tomorrow. This is **our** night. This is about **us**."

"The official start of our awesomely ever after," Barney agreed. He shook his head quickly then, as if to banish Ted's betrayal, and said, "Actually, I wasn't just coming in here to see you because I've missed seeing you all day. I have a something for you...and no, it's not that." He smirked before reaching into his pants pocket, pulling out a gray velvet jewelry case, and holding it out to her with a flourish. Robin took the small box and willed her fingers to stop shaking, prying the lid open to reveal a silver locket on a matching chain. "The best part's inside," Barney said softly.

Robin removed the locket from the box, set the box on the table, and opened the locket to reveal a picture of a sandcastle on a beach under a blue sky. She inhaled sharply before looking up to meet Barney's eyes. "I know it's not your grandmother's," he said, "but I saw it in a jewelry store window in the Village a few weeks ago, and the first night we were together-"

"'Sandcastles in the Sand,'" Robin said with a smile.

"That was the night the universe shifted," Barney said, "the night that my feet were set on the path that led us here. All of the twists and turns and potholes and detours...It was all worth it, Robin. **You're** worth it. **We're** worth it. Because you loving me, and me loving you, is the best thing that's ever happened to me. And I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to make you as happy as you make me."

"I love you so much, Barney," Robin said. "I never thought I could love anyone this much. You're my home. And I can't wait to be your wife." She held the sandcastle locket out to Barney. "Will you put this on me?" she asked.

"It would be my pleasure," Barney replied. He fastened the locket around Robin's neck, and then she turned into his waiting arms and kissed him deeply, soundly. They were lost in the kiss when Lily and Marshall returned. Lily cleared her throat and, when that didn't work, resorted to an ear-splitting whistle.

Barney and Robin broke the kiss, both breathing heavily. "It's time," Lily said. "Barney, you need to get out there with Marshall and James and William Zabka. Robin, Patrice is waiting in the hall with your dad, and we need to fix your lipstick."

Robin wiped some of her lipstick from the corner of Barney's mouth with her thumb. "I'll see you out there," she said.

"I'll be waiting," Barney said with a smile. He caught hold of Robin's hand as she lowered it from wiping the lipstick from the corner of his mouth, squeezed her hand, then released her hand and walked to the door, clapping Marshall on the back as they headed into the hall.

As Lily helped Robin fix her lipstick, she said, "Are you guys really okay?"

"We're going to talk about Ted later," Robin told her. "Tonight is about Barney and me. Thanks for being here for us, Lily."

"There's nowhere else I would be," Lily replied. "Are you ready?"

"Oh yeah," Robin said. Lily handed Robin her bouquet, and Robin said with a smile, "Let's go get me and Barney married!"

And Robin and Barney got married and walked up the aisle hand in hand and into their future, with no doubts, no fears, and no regrets about one another.

* * *

_**To see the locket that Barney gave Robin, Google 'sandcastle porthole locket.' I hope no one's too upset with my headcanon. Ted needs some distance to get his head on straight and get over Robin for real, and what happens to him while he's getting that distance will be revealed by story's end. Barney and Robin are married, and in this story, they're going to stay that way for life. Thanks for reading, and there's more to come.**_


	4. Miracles Revisited

_**Thank you for all the reviews, follows, and favorites. They mean a lot to me and inspire me to keep going. Unlike Bays and Thomas, I promise not to pull the rug out from under you and really tick you off with the ending to this story, which is still a few chapters away.**_

* * *

After Robin finished relating what had happened with Ted right before the wedding, Barney was torn between sadness, anger, and disbelief that Ted would do that to him and to Robin right before their wedding, but he knew that it was absolutely, 100% the truth, because Robin wouldn't lie to him about something that important and that devastating, and neither would Marshall and Lily.

"And Ted didn't crash the reception and make another grandstand play for you?" he asked, half dreading the answer.

"No," Robin said.

"He really did go back to the inn, pack, and leave," Marshall reported. "And he really did move to Chicago the next day. He's there now." He paused for a second, then, rubbing at the back of his neck, he continued, "We've, uh, heard from him a few times. He hasn't asked about you guys, though, and no one had told him about your accident or you and Robin being here in L.A., Barney."

"Has he mentioned if he's met anyone in Chicago?" Barney asked. "I mean, this _**is** _Ted we're talking about. He falls in love every third day."

"No, he hasn't mentioned anybody," Lily replied. "It's been quick, basic stuff, like he arrived safely, he's settled into his apartment, the job's going well."

Robin had already asked the same questions of Marshall and Lily while waiting for Barney to wake up, and Barney had the same reaction to the answers that she did: relief tinged with sadness at this ultimate betrayal by a man they had both considered a true friend, and in Barney's case a brother, for many years. "Barney," Marshall said next, "if Ted ever _**does** _get his head on straight and get over Robin for real...would you let him come back?"

Marshall had asked the same question of Robin a few days earlier, and her response had been, "God, Marshall, my husband is in a coma and recovering from hitting a tree while hang gliding! I can't think about Ted now!"

Barney looked thoughtful for a few silent minutes as he contemplated the possibility. "I don't know," he finally said. "Robin was right: it's not healthy for any of us for Ted to be pining away for her and obsessing over her and thinking that somehow he's entitled to be with her because he saw her first, or because he's a better man than I am-"

"**No** man is a better man than you are," Robin interjected. "Not for me."

Barney looked at Robin then and smiled at her tenderly. Then he turned his attention back to Marshall. "I really don't know, Marshall. Robin is my wife. Nothing and no one is ever going to change that. I didn't realize the depth of Ted's sense of entitlement and his obsession with getting Robin."

"None of us did," Lily said. Indeed, she and Marshall had both beaten themselves up over not recognizing sooner that Ted had not really let go of Robin after all.

"If him coming back means that he's harassing Robin and trying to convince her to leave me for him, then no, we won't, we can't, let him come back," Barney went on.

"Right," Robin agreed. "Not only is it not fair to Barney and me, it's not fair to Ted. If he doesn't truly get me out of his heart, then how is he ever going to move forward with his life? And he **has** to move forward with his life."

"It might be just the four of us on that front porch someday, Lily," Barney said.

"I don't believe that," Lily said. "The one for Ted is out there somewhere, a woman who will listen to his long-winded stories and who wants the kids and the white picket fence and the house in the suburbs. But Ted hasn't been as open to finding her as he thinks he's been because all these years, he's been wanting a version of Robin that doesn't exist and never could. So you guys are right: he has to get over you for real and for good, Robin, so that his heart is finally open to the one for him. And hopefully his move to Chicago is helping with that."

A nurse came in then. "Visiting hours are over," she said. "And it's time for your medication, Mr. Stinson."

After Barney took the pain medication for his cracked ribs, Marshall and Lily bid him and Robin good night. "We'll be back in the morning," Marshall said as Lily and Robin hugged. "We'll bring breakfast." Marshall then hugged Robin while Lily carefully hugged Barney, and then Marshall hugged Barney carefully as well.

"Thanks for being here," Barney said. "Things must be crazy for you with Marvin and another baby on the way and getting ready to move to Italy for a year, but you dropped everything to be here for Robin and me. That means a lot."

"You're family," Lily said seriously. "We wouldn't be anywhere else."

"We're always gonna be there for you guys," Marshall added, "and we know you're always gonna be there for us. Especially for the important things, and this is important. We're glad you're gonna be all right, Barney."

"Really glad," Lily added. "We'll see you in the morning."

After Marshall and Lily were gone, Robin asked Barney, "Are we really going to sit on the front porch in rocking chairs with Marshall and Lily when we're old?"

"Pssh, please. Marshall and Lily can sit on the front porch in rocking chairs. You and I are gonna be banging one out in the bathroom," Barney said with a grin.

"You bet we are," Robin replied, grinning back at him.

She gently high fived Barney's good hand, his left hand, when he held it up, but before she lowered her hand, the strain of the past few weeks finally hit Robin full force and, to her own horror, she burst out sobbing. Barney's face fell as Robin buried her face in her hands, but he didn't miss a beat, moving as much as he could given his broken arm in a sling and cracked, taped ribs and gathered Robin to him. She lowered her hands to bury her face against his neck, soaking him with hot tears as Barney held her as tightly as he could with his good arm and she clung to him as tightly as she dared, not wanting to hurt him further. Barney rained gentle kisses over the side of her face that he can reach. After she had cried it out, she took a deep, shuddering breath and lifted her face from Barney's neck, sniffling. "I've never been so terrified in my life," she whispered huskily.

"I'm so sorry I put you through this," Barney whispered back, brushing her hair out of her eyes, where it fell when she was crying, and then framing her face in his hands and softly stroking her cheeks with his thumbs.

Robin melted into his touch, holding his gaze with her red-rimmed eyes. "It was an accident," she replied. "But it was a terrifying accident. It really is a miracle that you're going to be all right." Indeed, the doctors in both Belize and at Cedars-Sinai had presented Robin with all kinds of worst case scenarios, which Marshall had told Robin was just standard medical procedure, the doctors covering their own butts so Robin and Barney couldn't sue them for every cent they had. But until Barney had opened his eyes and recognized her, Robin had feared that those worst case scenarios might be their new reality, and she was monumentally grateful and relieved that that wasn't the case.

"So you believe in miracles now?" Barney asked her. "'Cause as I remember, the last time I was laid up in the hospital like this, you had a big debate with Marshall, and he was the believer and you were a total skeptic."

"I've believed in miracles for a while now," Robin told him, "ever since you asked me to marry you. You loving me...the two of us loving each other the way we do and getting married...that's nothing less than a miracle."

"I've always thought so," Barney agreed. He looked at her earnestly then. "There's something I never told you about that day I got hit by the bus."

"What?" Robin asked, instantly fearing that some old injury from the bus accident had been aggravated again by Barney's hang gliding accident.

"Remember when Marshall and Lily were talking about how when you're in an accident like that, everything that you love flashes before your eyes, and they said that I must have seen a giant boob wearing a suit of money and lactating Scotch?" Barney asked.

"Yeah, that image is impossible to forget," she replied.

"I didn't see any of that stuff when the bus hit me," Barney said. "The only thing I saw was you, Robin. So I did indeed see everything that I love, because I saw you. And even when we weren't seeing each other like dating or engaged or married, I've been seeing you since then, even if it was just in my dreams or fantasies. Though I have to say, the reality of seeing you every day...the having a life with you and being married to you? Totally surpasses every dream and every fantasy and everything I ever imagined it would be. "

Robin was visibly moved by Barney's words. Linking her left hand with his so their wedding rings lined up, she rested her palm on his cheek and looked into his eyes once more. "I was never able to picture myself as a wife, being with the same man day in and day out forever. I didn't think I was made for it. And then you came into my life. You were unlike anyone else I had ever known, and the last thing I expected was that I would fall so completely in love with you, but it's the best thing I ever did. I could never picture myself with anybody for the rest of my life, but I know I'm gonna be with you forever. We're gonna be in our nineties and still awesomeing all over the place, and we'll be sitting on that front porch with Marshall and Lily...after we bang out at least one in the bathroom."

Barney pulled Robin flush against him then, his good arm wrapped around her back. "I think we should bang one out right now," he said.

Robin shifted against him, feeling his arousal against her thigh. "I would ask if you're up for it, but I already have my answer," she said with a smirk before capturing his lips in a kiss that quickly grew into a heated makeout session...which was interrupted when the door to Barney's hospital room burst open and a nurse pushed an empty hospital bed through the door with a noisy clatter of wheels.

Barney and Robin reluctantly pulled apart, and Barney even more reluctantly pulled his hand out from beneath Robin's blouse, revealing that he was clutching her bra, which he had removed. "Don't you knock?" Barney asked angrily.

"This is a hospital, Mr. Stinson, not a hotel," the nurse replied as she pushed the bed into the room. "I'm guessing this bed will go unused," she said as she set it up next to Barney's hospital bed, "but Dr. Everett requisitioned it so I had to bring it in here." She looked at them, highly amused, and said, "Just as a heads up, the night nurse will be in to check on you at midnight. Should I hang an extra hospital gown from the doorknob, and your wife can take it down when you're done?"

"Sexless innkeeper wannabe," Barney muttered as the nurse left the room laughing.

When they were alone again, Robin said, "We have a couple hours before midnight. I didn't score a nurse's uniform yet-"

"We're gonna be here for another five days," Barney said as he settled back against the pillows. "There's time for that." He tangled his fingers in her hair as he said softly, "Right now, I just want you, Robin."

"You have me," Robin said against Barney's lips. "Forever."

And that night, Robin and Barney were able to cross "hospital bed" off their list of places to have sex.


	5. Here's Where We Begin

_**This chapter doesn't actually feature Barney and Robin, but it's important to the story. Also, I'm slightly tweaking the details of Ted and Tracy's first meeting, because Ted did not stay for the wedding and reception so he didn't see Tracy playing with the band.**_

* * *

The pouring rain had soaked Ted to the skin, but it was either stay outside on the platform and get even more drenched than he already was, or go back inside the Farhampton train station to be further mocked by the music playing over the P.A. system. He grimaced at "I Can't Make You Love Me"; fidgeted at "Here Without You"; and by the time Phil Collins' version of "You Can't Hurry Love" started, Ted figured that karma was mercilessly mocking him for remaining so hopelessly hung up on Robin for so many years, and for being enough of a douche to actually try to convince her to leave Barney at the altar and marry him instead and move with him to Chicago.

Unbidden, his mind traveled back to another rainy night years ago, the night he performed a rain dance, the night he and Robin got together. He had been chasing her for almost a year by that point, determined to make her his, determined to make her see that he was the right guy for her, because he knew beyond all doubts that she was the right girl for him.

But he knew now that Robin was right: he had always been way more into her than she was into him. And fundamentally, they did want different things.

Ted shifted on the bench, pulling his sodden tux jacket more tightly around him, as he recalled the night he found out that Barney had slept with Robin. He had been angry, betrayed, and insanely jealous. He had been willing to cut Barney out of his life for that, because at the time, he had thought that Robin was just another notch on Barney's belt, just one of the masses that made up his triple-digit list of sexual partners. Ted was far from innocent when it came to women, especially since Barney and Robin had gotten engaged. Looking back on it, his descent into the kind of debauchery that Barney made his lifestyle for so long, albeit on a much smaller scale, had been triggered by their engagement, by the realization that the one man that Ted figured would still be chatting up busty bimbos at McLaren's when the whole gang was in their eighties was committing himself fully and faithfully to one woman forever...and the realization that the woman Barney was committing himself to fully and faithfully and forever was the one woman that Ted had been so sure was the one woman that Ted would be committing himself to fully and faithfully and forever one day.

Robin loved Barney more than she had ever loved him. And Barney had grown and changed a lot since realizing his love for Robin. That love was so much a part of her that it was right there in her eyes for the whole world to see whenever she looked at Barney. And Robin and Barney had so much more in common than Robin and Ted had had. True, Ted's parents had divorced, but long after he was grown. His childhood hadn't been half as dysfunctional as Robin's, or as Barney's.

All this time, Ted had thought that his love would save Robin, would open her up to the world, would make her change her mind about a Ward and June Cleaver existence in the suburbs with their beautiful dark-haired children.

But Ted had never gotten into Robin's heart the way Barney had. He hadn't obliterated all of the carefully constructed walls she had built around herself the way Barney had.

It turned out that all Robin needed to open herself up was Barney.

Which was great for Robin, and great for Barney, but left Ted sitting here in the pouring rain, alone and possibly having driven the people he was closest to in the world out of his life by his behavior in the past couple of hours.

Ted heard footsteps approaching but doubted it was any of his friends; a quick glance at his watch confirmed what the sinking feeling in his stomach told him: that Barney and Robin were married by now, and that they, and Marshall and Lily, and the rest of the guests were, at this very moment, partying down in joyous celebration of Barney and Robin's marriage.

Ted looked up when he saw a shadow fall across his shoes, and saw a young woman with dark hair and brown eyes standing beneath a yellow umbrella, holding a bass guitar case and looking at him, concerned. "Are you all right?" she asked. "You look like you just lost your best friend."

"I'm afraid I might have lost my four best friends," Ted replied, finally looking away and back down at his shoes.

The woman sat down beside him, holding her yellow umbrella over both of them. Taking in his sodden tuxedo, the tie undone and dangling from his unbuttoned collar, she said, "What, did you pull a runaway groom?"

Ted laughed shortly, humorlessly. "I wish," he said. "No, two of my best friends got married tonight. Only I was convinced that the bride was the girl I was supposed to marry, so right before the wedding, I proposed to her and asked her to move to Chicago with me." He leaned back on the bench, still under the shelter of the umbrella. He sighed deeply and said, "She turned me down, and of course her fiancé felt betrayed, and my other two best friends sided with them. So I really made a big mess of everything."

"So you really loved this girl," the woman said.

Ted lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. "The consensus is that I was really in love with my idea of her, or rather, my idea of what she could be. But that's not who she really is. And on some level, I know that. I should want her to be happy...and she's happy with Barney. And he's happy with her. They really love each other. And these are the two most commitment-phobic people I've ever known in my life. They weren't looking for love, like I've been. They didn't even _**believe**_ in love. They just kind of...backed into the whole thing. And I've been there for all of it. I've seen their whole relationship unfold, all of the stops and starts and stumbles. I've seen them both in terrible pain, when they were apart. And I've seen them happier than I ever knew either of them could be, since they've been together." He ran a hand through his wet hair before continuing. "I've made an ass of myself a lot of times before over Robin, but here, tonight? I could not have been a bigger ass. I don't know how they're ever going to forgive me for this. I don't know how I'm going to let go of this...this fantasy of Robin and me that I've held onto all these years. And I don't even know why I'm telling you all this."

"I have the kind of face that makes people feel like spilling their emotional guts," she replied. "I should have been a bartender instead of a musician and an economist." She shifted slightly so that she was now facing Ted. "They really are happy together."

Ted looked the woman in the eye now. "How do you know?"

She nodded to the bass guitar case on her lap. "Because I just finished playing their wedding reception. I've played a lot of weddings, and I've never seen a couple so happy to be married, or so much in love."

Ted couldn't stop his heart from sinking at this. Lily and Marshall were right: he had to get over for Robin for real and accept that his future was not with her.

The light on the lamppost behind the bench on which they were sitting finally came on then, casting Ted in a pool of light. The woman finally got a good look at his face and said, "Wait a minute. I know you. You're a professor at Columbia."

This shocked Ted out of his self-pity. "I am," he said. "Or I was. I'm moving to Chicago tomorrow. I have a job waiting for me there. Which of my classes were you in?" He felt awful not remembering her.

"Econ 305," she said with a smirk.

Ted bowed his head. "And this night just keeps getting better," he said. He shook his head. "I'm making one hell of a first impression here. You've got to be sitting there thinking, 'God, this guy is a total schmuck. Why did I bother coming out here in the first place?'"

But he was surprised when she laughed, and not in a mean way or an I'm-making-fun-of-you way. She was genuinely amused. "If it's any consolation, it's not my best night either," she said. "I just broke up with someone that I was tired of lying to myself that I loved...after he proposed to me with a huge ring...because the man I really loved died eight years ago...on my birthday."

Ted looked at her, shocked. "Wow," he said.

"And you thought you were pathetic," the woman said wryly.

"I don't think I'm pathetic. I _**know**_ I'm pathetic," Ted replied. "But I don't think you are. I think you're really brave. You're still out there in the world. I haven't been through anything half as traumatic as the one I love dying, and right now, I feel like I want to crawl into a hole and just stay there forever."

"Take it from someone who did crawl into a hole and stay there for about three years, until a good friend forced me out of my hole," the woman replied. "It's not all it's cracked up to be." She paused. "Are you really moving to Chicago in the morning?"

"Yeah, I am," Ted replied. "When Barney and Robin get back from their honeymoon, they're gonna be living here in New York. And my other friends, Marshall and Lily, are moving to Italy for a year for Lily's job. I think I need this distance to start getting over Robin for real. I can't move forward with my life until I do get over her." He leaned forward, letting his clasped hands dangle between his knees. "You know, it was Marshall and Lily that got me wanting to get married. They've been together since they met the first day of college. Marshall and I were roommates, and Lily lived down the hall. The day Marshall proposed to her was the day I met Robin...and the day Barney met Robin, because he was with me when I met her. Marshall and Lily...It's not that they don't have their problems and their fights and their issues, because every couple does. But they just...they made it look so easy. They just fit together, in a way that neither of them could ever fit with anyone else. And then it happened for Barney and Robin, and they weren't even looking for it. And it's not like Marshall and Lily were looking for it either, when they met. I've been out there all these years trying to find it, and I thought I had, I really thought I had. But I didn't."

"Maybe that's the problem," the woman reflected. "You're trying too hard. You're looking for love and you're looking for someone to marry and buy a house with and have kids with and grow old with, and it never comes to you when you're looking for it. I mean, isn't that what they say? Love comes when you least expect it, and when you're not looking for it."

Ted was blindsided by these words. All of the clichés and all of the grand gestures he had ever committed in the name of love-seeing Robin across a crowded bar...stealing that stupid blue French horn for her, chasing after her for a year, agreeing to break up with her a year after that because they didn't want the same things out of life or their relationship, but not letting go of her the way he had sworn up and down to everyone that he had...tracking Victoria down after he met her at that wedding, and then years later, spiriting her away from what was supposed to be her wedding to Klaus...breaking up with Stella only to propose to her at Kiddy Fun Land after that minor car accident, and then she left him at the altar for her ex...taking his high school and college girlfriend Karen back years later only to have her continue to cheat on him, as she did when they were in high school and college...his seesawing feelings for Zoey, and their final breakup when she couldn't support his dream to have a building he designed as part of the Manhattan skyline...certifiably insane Jeannette...and all of the random dates in between these longer relationships-and what had it brought him? Several breakups, a couple of dumpings, being left at the altar once, and now having alienated Barney and Robin for sure and at least earning Marshall and Lily's deep concern and disappointment by trying to convince Robin to leave Barney for him only moments before she married Barney.

Maybe this woman was right. And Marshall's words came back to him now too, about how he, Ted, had been on a quest to find The One since the moment Marshall had told Ted that Marshall was asking Lily to marry him.

"Penny for your thoughts," the woman said, breaking Ted's reverie of self-awareness.

"I was just thinking that you're right," he told her. "It's good that I'm moving to Chicago in the morning. I need some distance from all of the romantic disasters I've experienced here in New York."

"Is this move to Chicago a permanent thing?" the woman asked. "I mean, are you leaving and never coming back?"

"Actually, no," Ted replied. "I didn't mention that part to my friends, but it's a one-year assignment. I guess at the end of the one year, I could decide to stay in Chicago. But I'm not making any decisions now. I haven't even gotten there yet. I guess if I can get over Robin once and for all, and if I can get her and Barney to forgive me and get Marshall and Lily to not be disappointed in me, I'll probably come back to New York. I know better than to think I'm going to get off the plane in Chicago and meet the love of my life. I'm not going to go looking anymore. I've been consciously looking for the last eight years, and where has it gotten me?"

"On a train platform in Farhampton in the pouring rain with me?" the woman suggested.

Ted cracked his first genuine smile in what felt like forever. "I'm Ted Mosby, by the way," he said, extending his hand.

"Tracy McConnell," the woman replied, taking Ted's proffered hand in a firm handshake. "It's nice to meet you, Ted."

"It's nice to meet you too, Tracy," he said. "Thanks for sharing your umbrella with me."

"Too bad we're not at a bus stop," Tracy said. At Ted's blank look, she said, "The song? 'Bus Stop' by The Hollies? Although it's the guy sharing his umbrella with the girl in the song." She smiled a bit self-consciously. "British Invasion."

"I get lost after The Beatles and the Stones," Ted admitted. "But I bet you could teach me a lot more about music than I could teach you about economics."

"But not about architecture," Tracy countered. "You're quite the expert in architecture, Professor. Oh, and there's only one 'f' in 'professor.'"

"I'll remember that," Ted said, cracking another smile.

"So were you sitting out here in the pouring rain because you felt like a total douche for trying to get Robin to run away with you?" Tracy asked then.

"Mostly," he said. "The music in the station was the last straw."

"Been there," Tracy said feelingly. "What song pushed you over the edge?"

"Phil Collins' version of 'You Can't Hurry Love,'" Ted informed her.

"Radio DJs can be heartless bastards," she agreed.

"Since the train is ridiculously late, would you like to go in the station and get a cup of coffee?" Ted offered then. "Just don't be alarmed if I suddenly snatch your umbrella away and start beating on the nearest speaker if I hear another song that reminds me what an ass I made of myself tonight."

"You won't have to snatch my umbrella. I'll gladly loan it to you," Tracy replied as she stood up.

They spent all night in the Farhampton train station talking. Tracy had her ukulele with her as well, and when she pulled it out of her suitcase, Ted exclaimed, "That was you! At the inn! You were on the balcony of the room next to mine singing 'La Vie en Rose!'"

"I was," Tracy said, surprised.

"It was incredible. You're very talented," Ted said.

"Thank you," Tracy said, smiling at the compliment. Then she pulled out her cell phone. "Do you have your phone with you?" she asked.

"Yeah, why?" Ted asked as he pulled his own phone out of his shirt pocket, where it had remained somewhat protected from the elements.

"I'm going to put my number in your phone," Tracy said as she plucked Ted's phone from his hand and handed him hers. "You put your number in my phone. This way you'll know that you still have one friend in New York who's hoping that you'll come back when the year is up."

After they had put their numbers in each other's phones, Ted said, "I really have to get back to the city. There's a flight to Chicago I have to be on in" he consulted his watch now "three hours."

"I'm heading back to the city too," Tracy replied. She paused, then said, "I'm not looking for a relationship right now."

"Neither am I," Ted assured her. "I have to get my head on straight and get over Robin, and I'm leaving town in three hours anyway." He paused. "But we have each other's numbers, and I definitely plan on using yours. Probably a lot. I don't know anyone in Chicago."

"There are some things I have to figure out too," Tracy admitted, knowing that while she had agreed to let go of Max, she hadn't actually done it yet, any more than Ted had let go of Robin yet. But they would. Somehow Tracy knew that she would be able to let go of Max now, and that Ted would be able to let go of Robin now. "But something is telling me not to let you leave my life now that you're in it, Ted Mosby."

They parted at Grand Central Station, as Ted rushed to his apartment to shower and change and rush to JFK for his flight. He was surprised when he heard Tracy calling his name as he was waiting at the gate. She came rushing up, out of breath, wearing a different outfit but still carrying her yellow umbrella, since it had been raining on and off in the city since they had arrived at Grand Central from Farhampton.

"You're here!" Ted exclaimed, surprised and pleased.

She held up one finger to signal him to give her a minute to catch her breath. Once she had done so, she said, "I wanted to tell you to have a safe flight, and knock 'em dead in Chicago."

"I'll do my best," Ted promised. Spying her yellow umbrella again, he said, "You know, I had an umbrella like that. It even had my initials on it. T.M."

"I just realized those are my initials too," Tracy said. "T.M. Tracy McConnell. Ted Mosby. And this umbrella has my initials on it. In fact, I lost it for a few years. I left it in a club I went to-"

"-on St. Patrick's Day," Ted finished in unison with Tracy. Tracy looked as stunned as Ted felt.

"You were there?" she said. "You were at that club on St. Patrick's Day..." She thought back in her head. "...2008?"

"I was there," Ted said. "That's where I found the umbrella. I think...I think we had the same umbrella." He just stared at her, and she stared back at him. "And you were in the class I wrongly taught for that one day...and you were on the balcony next to mine at the inn."

They just stood there, staring at each other, until the loudspeaker announced the final boarding call for Ted's flight. "I have to go," Ted said regretfully.

"Yeah," Tracy said just as regretfully.

"I'll call you when I get to Chicago, let you know I made it there safely," he said.

"Okay," she replied. They looked at each other for a few seconds more, and then, just as Ted started to open his arms, Tracy flung her arms around his neck and hugged him, and Ted hugged her back.

When Tracy stepped back, out of Ted's arms, she said, "I meant what I said last night, about you having a friend in New York who's hoping you'll come back next year."

"I think I have at least one definite reason to come back next year," Ted said. He squeezed her hand. "I'll call from Chicago."

He turned back one last time to look, and Tracy was still there. She smiled and waved at him, so he smiled and waved back at her before disappearing from view.

And in time, Ted would come to realize that the night he made a total ass of himself and got kicked out of Barney and Robin's wedding, the night he feared he had alienated his four best friends, possibly for good in the case of Barney and Robin, was also the night he met the love of his life, the mother of his future children, the woman he would grow old and gray with...Tracy McConnell.

* * *

_**We'll return to Barney and Robin in the next chapter, but now you know where Ted's head is right now, and what's ultimately waiting for him in the future. **_


	6. Former Lone Wolves Make Joint Decisions

_Thanks_**_ for all the support-the follows, reviews, and favorites! It means a lot to a first-time HIMYM writer. I hope you enjoy the rest of the story. I have it loosely mapped out, but I believe in being true to the characters and following the muse wherever it leads, not sticking to one idiotic plan nine years after it was originally written, when the characters have grown so much that it doesn't even make sense for any of them anymore (I'm looking at you, especially, Carter F. Bays). But I promise, Barney and Robin are endgame. I'll try to be more timely with updates from here on out, but work has been insane the past week, so I haven't had the time to devote to this story until today._ _And now we continue..._**

* * *

Every nurse on the floor witnessed what Lily dubbed Barney and Robin's sexcapades during the five days Barney spent in the hospital. Robin didn't score a nurse's uniform from the hospital because all of the nurses wore scrubs, but she did, with Marshall's help, find a costume shop nearby and bought a sexy nurse costume, which Barney really enjoyed and which the head nurse, a woman of 55 with a cap of steel gray curls and a permanent frown who walked in on Robin half-dressed in the sexy nurse costume and giving Barney a sponge bath, did not.

"Mr. and Mrs. Stinson," the head nurse finally lectured them, "I realize you're newlyweds, but have you no self-control? This is a hospital. It is not a resort hotel, nor is it a nudist colony! One or both of you have exposed yourselves accidentally to the entire nursing staff this week!"

"And you're complaining?" Barney asked, affronted. "Robin and I have to be way more attractive than most of the patients you end up seeing naked."

"Naked people all look the same to us, Mr. Stinson. We are professionals," the nurse said stiffly. "And I can see I'm wasting my time." She stalked out of Barney's room, disgusted.

"She really needs to get laid," Robin remarked after the nurse was safely out of earshot.

"Does she ever," Barney agreed. "I haven't seen anybody that jittery from lack of sex since Ted's last big drought."

And that one sentence, one that, prior to their wedding, wouldn't have required any thought, one that would have, in fact, launched a thousand jokes at Ted's expense, became a ten-ton elephant in the room, because it was the first mention of Ted since Barney had awakened and Robin had told him what Ted had done and said right before their wedding.

Barney and Robin were silent for a long moment. Then Robin said, "I guess we have to talk about it."

"Yeah," Barney said. "Avoiding things never helps us. And I don't want this...him...Ted...to hurt us."

"He can't hurt us," Robin assured Barney, threading her fingers through his. "He's in Chicago. Saying his name isn't going to magically make him appear. And I love you, not him."

"I thought I knew him," Barney said sadly. "So I knew that he could be...well..."

"Kind of a douche," Robin supplied helpfully.

"Well, yeah," Barney agreed. "Although I was going to say 'pretentious.'"

"That too," Robin agreed. She laid her head on Barney's shoulder, her hand still linked with his.

"You know what's really ironic?" Barney pondered. "All along, I thought that I was teaching Ted how to live. And in a way, I was. But Ted is a walking Hallmark card. The guy was born wanting to get married and have kids. But you and I are the ones who are married. And Marshall and Lily...they met the first week of college and mated for life. And I know they broke up for a few months there, when Lily was in San Francisco-"

"And you were the one who convinced her to come back," Robin said coyly.

Barney looked at her, surprised. "How did you know about that?" he asked.

"Lily gets very chatty when she gets very drunk. It's been a while since she's gotten very drunk, but once when she did, she mentioned that to me, that if it hadn't been for you flying out to San Francisco and telling her that if she didn't get home, she really would lose Marshall forever, she would have lost the best thing that ever happened to her. And don't think I don't remember how emotional you got when you were officiating at Lily and Marshall's private wedding. You have always been a fan of love and monogamy. You're just not as obnoxious about it as Ted is."

Barney smiled and turned his head (the neck brace had come off three days ago) to kiss the top of Robin's head where it was resting on his shoulder. Then he continued, "And we were both a mess when we were apart, but I think that's what a relationship is, at its core: you have your ups and downs, and some of those downs really suck, but you make a choice, a commitment if you will, to the other person that you're in this thing forever, and whatever the downs are, you'll work those out together. That's what we've seen Marshall and Lily do all these years, and that's what I want for us, Robin."

Robin lifted her head to meet Barney's eyes then. "That's what I want for us too," she said softly. "I know what it's like to live without you. And not Ted, not anyone or anything else is going to take me away from you, ever."

"Nothing and no one is going to take me away from you, ever, either, including Ted," Barney said solemnly, earnestly. He sighed. "What do we do about Ted, though? Okay, he's in Chicago. Maybe he's not going to stay there forever." Robin bit her lip at this. "What?" he said.

"Well, you know that Marshall and Lily have talked to him, however briefly," Robin said.

"Yeah?"

"Ted said this job he's taken in Chicago is for a year. At the end of that year, he'll have the opportunity to come back to New York...probably around the same time that Marshall and Lily and their kids will be back from Italy. Marshall told me this morning when he and Lily were here. Ted just told them last night."

Barney stayed silent, digesting this fact, even while silently cheering the fact that Robin had told him within 24 hours of finding out about it from Marshall. They both really were committed to no longer lone wolfing it now that they were married.

Robin wondered what Barney was going to say, how he would ultimately react to the news that Ted's departure from New York might not be as permanent as he had initially led them to believe it was. She had put off thinking about Ted indefinitely because first she and Barney were on their honeymoon, then Barney got hurt in the hang gliding accident and Robin moved heaven and earth to get him the best medical care possible and then get him home to the States, then he'd been in a coma and her entire world had stopped for those endless seven days and nights until he woke up and knew who she was, and the past almost week had been spent in the hospital with Barney recovering from the worst of his injuries. Now that the crisis had passed, she found that she could think about Ted, and all she could think was that she felt sorry for him. For all of his insistence on destiny and fate, for all his belief that his soulmate was out there, for as much as he wanted a wife and kids, a home and a conventional nuclear family, he was no closer to finding it than he had been the day Marshall had told him that Marshall was proposing to Lily. And it didn't matter how many times he stole that stupid blue French horn, how many rain dances he performed, or how many years he kept her grandmother's locket, because none of those things would make Robin love Ted. Nothing would make Robin love Ted as any more than a platonic friend. And despite his repeated insistences that he was over Robin, that he didn't want her, that he gave Robin and Barney's relationship and marriage his blessing, his last-ditch, last-minute marriage proposal moments before Robin married Barney proved that Ted was not over her, nor anywhere close to being over her. And if he didn't stop being hung up on her, how was he going to find that soulmate that was very definitely not her to live in that house and have that family with him?

Finally Barney spoke. "I don't think we can really make a decision until we know for sure if Ted is coming back to New York. More importantly, we can't know if we can let Ted back into our lives until we know if he's able to get over you. And he has to respect our marriage. He can't be trying to come between us, or trying to steal you away from me."

"He could never steal me away from you," Robin assured Barney, "but you're right. He's practically obsessed with me, but in a Dahmer way, not in a Dobler way. And if Ted can't or won't respect our marriage and our love for each other and accept that he and I are never going to happen under any circumstances, then we can't be friends with him anymore."

"That'll suck if that happens, but it's the way it will have to be," Barney agreed.

"So no final decisions on Ted until we know for sure if he's really over me," Robin said.

"Right." He paused, then said, "But-"

She knew what he wasn't saying. "We'll leave the calls and texts and Skyping to Marshall and Lily. If we get in touch with Ted in any way, shape, or form, it would just confuse the issue even more, and what he did before our wedding was **not** okay."

"Agreed on all points," Barney replied. "So can we be done talking about Ted now? Because there's something else I want to talk to you about, Robin."

She smirked at him. "I already promised I'd wear the nurse's uniform again later. You know, that's a surprisingly roomy shower for a hospital room bathroom, and it even has a bench we could make excellent use of."

Barney beamed. "Best. Wife. Ever!" he enthused. Then he grew serious. "But I wanted to talk about something else besides christening the shower. Something important, and kind of serious." After a beat, he said, "You know that I still haven't gotten my memories of our wedding day back." Yes, Robin did know that. She also knew, as did Barney, Marshall, and Lily, that those memories might never come back for Barney, regardless of how many photographs he looked at, stories he told, or how many times he watched the video taken at the wedding and reception, or something completely unexpected could trigger the floodgates of those memories at any time. "And I've seen the pictures and the video, but it's not the same. And Robin, I just can't go through life _**not**_ remembering marrying you."

Robin's expression softened. "Are you asking me to marry you again?" she asked.

"Yes," Barney replied. "As soon as possible."

Her face lit up. "You know, we did have a nice wedding, Ted notwithstanding," she said, "but this is our chance to have a wedding just for us. No dysfunctional relatives, no minister dropping dead unexpectedly, no dramas with friends, or people we thought were our friends."

"You have an idea," he realized.

"You and me and Marshall and Lily on a deserted stretch of beach, maybe by moonlight," Robin said. "We don't need another license. We wouldn't even have to get a minister or a judge or a justice of the peace because we're legally married."

"I'll wear a white suit," Barney said, catching Robin's spirit.

"Then it's definitely a good thing we're not having a bunch of people," Robin cracked. "You in white? I'm not sure even Marshall and Lily will be able to keep straight faces for that."

"Keep straight faces for what?" Lily asked from the doorway, where she and Marshall stood with takeout Italian food. One of the many things they had been doing all week was bringing food for Barney and Robin, since the hospital food was, to put it mildly, unappealing.

Barney and Robin exchanged a look and a smile, then looked at Marshall and Lily. "We're getting married again," Robin announced.

**"YES!"** Lily exulted, doing a fist pump. Then she looked at Marshall and held out her hand. Marshall good-naturedly pulled out his wallet, removed a ten-dollar bill, and placed it in Lily's waiting palm. "And I can officiate, the way you officiated at our wedding, Barney. I got ordained on the Internet earlier this week."

"Great, because we're only having you guys this time," Barney said. "Marshall, you can film it."

Marshall looked at Barney and Robin warily. "I'll film it," he said, "but only if you swear to me that you have removed any and all sex tapes from the video camera before you give it to me."

"So Marshall's the videographer, I'm officiating, what else do we need?" Lily asked. "You have the rings...Robin, you'll need a dress, and Barney, you'll need a suit. Flowers, music, food-"

And Lily was off and running with all kinds of grand wedding plans for Barney and Robin, so they just sat back and let her talk, having learned from her involvement in planning their Farhampton wedding that once Lily got rolling on wedding plans, she tended to go on for quite a while.

When she wound down, Robin said, "We're going to keep it fairly simple this time, Lily. Just the four of us at the beach at night. But yes, I'll need a dress, and Barney already has some definite ideas about his suit. Flowers, yes. Music, well, that's what iPods were invented for, right?"

"See me about the music," Barney said to Lily then. "I have some definite ideas." Robin rolled her eyes, but decided to let him have the music, resigning herself to the fact that Robin Sparkles would make another appearance at her and Barney's wedding.

"As for food, we can just go out somewhere afterwards," Barney said. "I'm getting out of here tomorrow." He looked at Robin then. "Should we do it tomorrow night?"

"Yeah," Robin decided instantly. "Let's get married again tomorrow night."

"That's so soon!" Lily exclaimed. "But if you're determined to get married again tomorrow night, then we can definitely make that happen." Marshall, in the meantime, had unpacked the food and the four friends sat around Barney's hospital room, eating Italian food and planning as much of Barney and Robin's second wedding for the next night as they could.


	7. Barney and Robin's Second Wedding

**_Since we didn't actually see Barney and Robin's vows, I had a lot of latitude in writing their second wedding, but I still worried about how to best write the ceremony. I hope I've captured their relationship and their love accurately. There's more to come, and we'll also be seeing what's going on with Ted starting in the next chapter, but Barney and Robin's lasting marriage, and Ted getting over Robin for good and getting his own love and his own life, remain the main points of this story._**

* * *

"There's nothing on the camera, Marshall," Barney assured his friend for the tenth time. Then he craned his neck, silently cursing his broken arm that left him unable to tie his own tie. He had wanted Robin to tie it for him, but Robin hadn't been there when he was getting dressed for this wedding; she was off with Lily, who had spirited her away as soon as Barney had been released from the hospital on a search for the perfect dress, leaving him and Marshall to go suit shopping and prepare the wedding site.

Marshall handed the camera back to Barney, untied his tie, and then retied it for him. "Better?" he asked.

"Sort of," Barney replied.

Marshall's phone binged with an incoming text message then. Marshall pulled the phone from his jacket pocket and consulted the screen. "They're pulling up," he announced, after which he and Barney immediately sprang into action.

Lily got out of the car first, then walked around and opened Robin's car door for her. "So, really, how do I look?" Robin asked as she alighted from the car holding a nosegay of red and white roses.

Lily, wearing a corsage that matched Robin's small bouquet of flowers pinned to her dress of cornflower blue, beamed at Robin. "Like a bride," Lily replied. Her phone binged with an incoming text message then. She removed the phone from the small clutch purse she carried and consulted the screen. "And your groom is waiting impatiently for you."

The sun was just setting, and the sound of the waves breaking on the shore was complimented a minute later by the song Barney had insisted to Marshall they had to play when Robin was walking the aisle. (A small table behind and to the left of Lily and Marshall held Barney's iPod and speakers.) Robin's eyes sought Barney and locked on him when she found him, standing at the head of a white runner flanked by two rows of lit tiki torches. He was wearing a white linen suit and a cornflower blue tie, a boutonniere of red and white roses matching her bouquet and Lily's corsage pinned to his lapel. She knew the instant he saw her: his eyes locked on hers, the tie making them look even bluer than usual, and his entire face was overtaken by a brilliant smile that put the sun to shame. Marshall, in a white linen jacket, black summer weight suit pants, and tie and boutonniere matching Barney's, had the video camera trained on Lily as she walked down the aisle to take her place with the men, and then Robin began her own walk down the aisle to Barney, walking as quickly as she could and realizing, much to her own surprise, that it wasn't "Sandcastles in the Sand" playing, but a song by her fellow Canadian: Chantal Kreviazuk's version of "Feels Like Home."

As Robin walked down the aisle to Barney, they only had eyes for each other, and the song washed over them both.

_"Something in your eyes makes me want to lose myself_

_Makes me want to lose myself in your arms_

_There's something in your voice makes my heart beat fast_

_Hope this feeling lasts the rest of my life"_

_"If you knew how lonely my life has been_

_And how long I've been so alone_

_And if you knew how I wanted someone to come along_

_And change my life the way you've done"_

_"It feels like home to me_

_It feels like home to me_

_It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from_

_It feels like home to me_

_It feels like home to me_

_It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong"_

Robin was deeply touched that Barney had chosen this song to accompany her walk down the aisle. They weren't one of those "Oh, honey, they're playing our song" couples, but they always claimed "Sandcastles in the Sand" as their song; indeed, that was why Robin had walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of "Sandcastles" at the wedding Barney couldn't remember. But listening to "Feels Like Home," Robin realized that it said a lot about who she and Barney were and what they gave to each other that they had never found with anyone else and never would or could find with anyone else. They had each been alone and, deep down, lonely before finding in each other what neither of them believed they ever would: unconditional love and acceptance, and a true partner in every sense of the word.

When she reached Barney's side and they were standing in front of Lily, Marshall filming them all the while, the song played to its end, Barney's eyes roamed Robin from head to toe, taking in her upswept hair, minimal makeup, white sundress and strappy white sandals. "Holy crap, you're beautiful," he said reverently. Robin, recalling when he had said that to her years ago after learning she wasn't wearing any makeup, felt her own smile grow wider, and she handed her bouquet to Lily so that she could straighten Barney's tie for him.

"Great tie," she said softly. Barney caught hold of one of Robin's hands as she released his tie, now perfectly straight, and gently kissed the back of her hand, then kept holding her hand as they stared into each other's eyes and the song concluded.

"_Well, if you knew how much this moment means to me_

_And how long I've waited for your touch_

_And if you knew how happy you are making me_

_I never thought that I'd love anyone so much"_

_"It feels like home to me_

_It feels like home to me_

_It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from_

_It feels like home to me_

_It feels like home to me_

_Feels like I'm all the way back where I belong_

_It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong"_

Lily cleared her throat to get their attention and, remembering what they were there for, Barney and Robin remained holding hands as they turned their attention to Lily. "Dearly beloved," Lily began, "we are gathered here to celebrate the love and union of Robin Scherbatsky and Barney Stinson. Having known you both for such a long time, and having seen your entire relationship unfold, I can honestly say that the two of you are the ideal match for one another. You're a little unconventional, but that's just one of the many things that makes you perfect for each other." She beamed at them, consciously working to keep her rioting hormones from turning her into a weepy mess this early in the ceremony.

"We will now proceed to the vows," Lily continued. "Robin?"

Robin looked deep into Barney's eyes, his good hand clasped in hers, and said, "Barney, I love you. That hasn't always been easy for me to say, but the longer we're together, the easier it gets. I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone. You are my best friend and the love of my life, and for the longest time, I really didn't think I would ever have either of those. I didn't think anyone would ever look at me and see the real me and love that woman, because for most of my life, it seemed that no one ever did that. But then you came into my life, and even through all of the stumbles and missteps and mistakes and the stupid things we did and the times we didn't tell each other the truth and ended up hurting each other in the process, you always saw the real me. I trusted you enough to show you the real me and not be afraid that you'd run away screaming. I didn't have to try to be somebody I'm not for you. Just being me is enough, and that is such an incredible gift. So now I have the best friend and love of my life that I never thought I'd find, and I'm so happy and so thankful that it's you." Barney squeezed her hand here, and she squeezed his hand back.

"I vow to love you for the rest of our lives, to always be there for you, and to always tell you what I'm thinking and how I'm feeling and to never assume I know what you're thinking and feeling because we have learned the hard way that doing that puts distance between us that neither of us wants. I will do my very best to make you as happy as you make me." She paused, then added, "Oh, and I'll also do my very best to keep the sex hot, creative, and frequent for the rest of our lives." Since they weren't in a church, Robin didn't feel awkward mentioning her and Barney's sex life (which was amazing) in her vows.

Barney's eyes twinkled naughtily at Robin's sex-related vow, but he was determined to make his own vows to Robin seriously and earnestly, so he didn't smirk or remove his hand from hers to ask for a high-five. Lily and Marshall were trying not to laugh right out loud, but Marshall was slightly more successful, since he didn't want to be blamed for ruining the wedding video because his shoulders were shaking with laughter while he was filming and also because he didn't have pregnancy hormones coursing through his body. Lily coughed a couple of times, cleared her throat again, and said, "Barney?"

Barney took a quick deep breath and said, "I know you walked down the aisle to 'Sandcastles in the Sand' last time, but yes, I chose 'Feels Like Home,' and I did it for a reason. We're not the sappy types, Robin, but that song **is** us. All my life, I wanted somewhere to belong. I've never doubted that my mother and brother love me, and I'm building a relationship with my dad now, which you had something to do with happening. But...I don't know...I just never really felt like I belonged. I wanted someone that would love me completely and unconditionally and passionately for the rest of my life, someone that I would love back in that same way. And for the longest time, I didn't think that was in the cards for me. And then I met you, and you became my friend and my bro. And you're the best bro I've ever had. But somewhere along the way, I stopped thinking of you as a bro and I started falling in love with you. The one thing I didn't think would ever happen for me started happening, at least from my side." He smiled and blinked, trying to keep himself from completely breaking down. "The first thing I said when I saw you that first night at McLaren's was 'Oh yeah, you just know she likes it dirty.'" He figured if she could mention sex in their vows this time, so could he; like Robin, Barney wouldn't have felt right mentioning sex in their vows in church, but this time, at the beach and with only Lily and Marshall, it wasn't taboo.

Robin's eyes widened slightly in surprise at this revelation, and belatedly, Barney realized he had never told her his first reaction upon seeing her across the crowded McLaren's until this very moment. But, since it was Robin, her reaction was to silently chuckle and give him the "oh you naughty boy" look he always loved seeing in her eyes, as that look was always a prelude to banter and/or foreplay, two of his billion and one favorite things to do with Robin. "I turned out to be right about that, but there's so much more to you than just your sexiness. You are, without a doubt, the most incredible person I've ever met, and the most miraculous thing that ever happened to me is you loving me the way you do, taking me as I am and accepting me, faults and all. I felt broken for a long time, but I'm not broken anymore, and that's because of you, Robin, because of your love and your acceptance and your friendship. Being with you is the best thing I will ever do. And I don't mean that just sexually." Okay, he couldn't resist one comment toward Robin's sex-related vow.

Earnestly, gazing deeply into her eyes, Barney laid his soul and his intentions bare to Robin. "Robin Scherbatsky, I vow to love you the same way you love me, all in, holding nothing back, unconditionally, for the rest of our lives. I vow to always be honest with you, because we both know how important honesty and communication are in a relationship. I vow to be your home, your safe haven when the world gets you down, the way you are my home and my safe haven. And I vow to do everything in my power to keep that light in your eyes, because when you're happy, I'm happy. And of course I vow to keep the sex hot, creative, and frequent for the rest of our lives too."

Lily chuffed out a laugh at this and wiped at the tears that slipped from her eyes of their own accord. She swallowed hard to rid herself of the lump in her throat and said, "Robin, do you take Barney to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor, and cherish, and forsaking all others, vow to keep yourself only unto him for as long as you both shall live?"

"I do," Robin said as she, in a sudden burst of inspiration, slipped Barney's wedding ring off his finger, quickly kissed it, and then slipped it back on his finger. As she put the ring back on his finger where it belonged, she remembered the words she had heard at her aunt's wedding when she was eleven and said them to Barney with her eyes full of love and wonder. "And with this ring, I thee wed. With my body, I thee worship. And with all my worldly goods, I thee endow."

"You're really making it hard on the pregnant woman here," Lily murmured, sniffling. Then, in her normal voice, she said, "Barney, do you take Robin to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor, and cherish, and forsaking all others, vow to keep yourself only unto her for as long as you both shall live?"

"I really do," Barney said. He then copied Robin's actions of a moment earlier, slipping her wedding ring off her finger, quickly kissing her ring, and slipping it back on her finger where it belonged as he repeated, "With this ring, I thee wed. With my body, I thee worship. And with all my worldly goods, I thee endow."

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife again," Lily said. "You may now-" Barney and Robin were too quick for her, though. She hadn't even finished pronouncing them husband and wife again before they were kissing. And this time, Robin dipped Barney when they kissed, as he had dipped her when they kissed at the wedding he couldn't remember.

Marshall filmed the whole thing, and this wedding, under the setting sun, surrounded by tiki torches and the two friends who had first made Robin and Barney believe that a happy, lasting marriage was possible and do-able, was one that nothing would ever make Barney, or Robin, or, for that matter, Marshall or Lily, forget.

The two couples dined at a super-romantic restaurant ("Seriously, that's in the description," Marshall said, pulling it up on his phone to prove it to the others) called Piccolo that was just steps from the beach and made the most delectable Italian food outside of Italy. In deference to Lily's pregnancy and Barney's painkillers, they didn't drink any alcohol, and Marshall and Lily both toasted Barney and Robin and their marriage.

After dinner, Lily wanted to go dancing, but Barney and Robin begged off, not surprising Lily and Marshall in the least, so they went dancing while Barney and Robin went back to the hotel and officially checked into the honeymoon suite, where they planned to stay for the next week, decompressing before they were due back home in New York.

Standing outside the door to the honeymoon suite, somewhat rumpled from their heated make-out session in the elevator, Barney said, "Have I mentioned how awesome it is that you sundressed up for our second wedding?"

"Once or twice," Robin replied coyly. "I thought you'd like it."

"I do," Barney said as he unlocked the door to the honeymoon suite, leaving the key dangling from the lock to toy with one of Robin's shoulder straps."And I'll like you even better out of it."

Robin grinned as she put her arms around Barney's neck. "My husband," she said. "Never one to let a come-on line pass him by."

"But the only woman I'm coming on to for the rest of my life is you," Barney said seriously. "My beautiful, amazing, awesome wife." He leaned in for another kiss, gently pushing her back against the door, and they began hungrily, passionately kissing again.

They were never certain exactly how long they stood against the door to the honeymoon suite, heatedly making out, but their reverie was broken when they heard Marshall and Lily chorus in unison, "Get a room!"

Breathing heavily, Robin mustered her best smirk, picked the still-panting Barney up in a fireman's carry, and opened the door to the honeymoon suite, carrying him inside, kicking the door shut behind them, and a few seconds later, her hand appeared, hanging the "Do Not Disturb" sign from the door before the door slammed shut and Marshall and Lily heard the lock click.

Marshall and Lily exchanged a look. "I'm beginning to think we shouldn't have gotten the room next door to theirs," Lily said.

"Well, at least now we'll find out if Ted was exaggerating about how loud they are in bed," Marshall mused, trying to look on the bright side.

It turned out Ted wasn't exaggerating at all. Barney and Robin could, and often did, get very loud when they were having sex.


	8. Moving On

A month after Barney and Robin's second wedding, Marshall, Lily and Marvin, along with Lily's father and Marshall's mother, moved to Italy for a year. Barney and Robin were back in New York by then, Barney almost completely recovered from the accident, except he had to wear the cast on his arm for a few more weeks, and he still didn't remember his and Robin's first wedding. The Stinsons saw the Aldrin-Eriksens off at the airport, and all four of them were surprisingly emotional. (Well, Lily being emotional wasn't such a surprise, since she was, after all, pregnant.)

"It's only for a year," Robin said tearfully.

"Yes, we will definitely be back in one year. One year from today, in fact," Lily said through her own tears.

Barney, who was as choked up as he had been at Lily and Marshall's wedding, pulled out his phone. "I'm putting it in my phone right now," he announced.

Marshall nodded, swallowed hard, and pulled out his own phone. "Me too," he said.

The final boarding call sounded then, and with one more round of hugs that included Marvin, Lily, Marshall, Marvin, Mickey and Judy were off on their Roman adventure. Lily turned back and shouted, "We'll call you when we get there!"

"Okay!" Robin shouted back. With one last wave, Lily turned away before her face completely crumpled yet again and hurried away with Marshall, who was carrying Marvin (their parents had gone ahead of them, giving them this time with their friends). When they were out of sight, Robin choked on a sob.

Barney gave her a tremulous smile and slung his good arm across her shoulders. "Well, it's just you and me, kid," he said in a very bad Humphrey Bogart imitation that lived up to its purpose and got a laugh out of Robin.

And so the five friends dove into their separate lives for a year: Barney and Robin in New York; Marshall and Lily and their family in Italy; and Ted in Chicago.

Barney and Robin texted, Skyped, and talked on the phone with Marshall and Lily at least once a week. Marshall and Lily texted, Skyped, talked on the phone, and e-mailed with Ted at least once a week. But Ted never asked after Barney and Robin, and Barney and Robin never asked after Ted, and Marshall and Lily simply appreciated the fact that none of their friends were putting them in the middle of their awkward situation.

Barney and Robin settled into their marriage, and found, to their individual and mutual surprise, that being married gave everything a depth it had never had before. The biggest change was in the inner sense of security each of them felt. Knowing that neither of them would ever truly be alone again, that they had the unconditional love and support each of them had craved their entire lives, and, best of all, knowing they had that unconditional love and support in one another made both Barney and Robin more secure than either of them had ever been in their lives, and happier than they had ever been in their lives, filled with a contentment that suffused their entire souls.

As for Ted, he cautiously got in touch with Marshall and Lily three days after the wedding but resisted the temptation to ask after Barney and Robin. He knew it was unfair to put Marshall and Lily in the middle of the mess he had made with Barney and Robin, so he didn't even try. Marshall and Lily were concerned about him, and they also took great pains not to mention Barney and Robin. But it didn't take long for normalcy to resume in Ted's relationship with his two oldest friends, and they texted and talked on the phone and emailed and Skyped almost every day leading up to Marshall and Lily's big move to Italy. Well, there **was** that week at the end of June that he didn't hear from them except in texts and one quick, hurried voicemail from Marshall that started, "Ted, it's me. Lily and I are going..." before he stopped short, was silent for several seconds, and then he concluded "We're gonna be gone dealing with a family emergency for a few days. We'll talk to you as soon as we can, and we'll text in the meantime, but it'll be brief." When regular communications had resumed between them, Ted asked if everyone was all right. He wasn't sure if the family emergency was with Lily's family or Marshall's, although he did know that Marshall's mother and Lily's father were planning to go to Italy with them and Marvin, and to help with the new baby when she (Marshall and Lily both swore it was a girl, even though it was too early for them to find out for sure yet) was born, but since Lily's dad lived in New York, he figured the family emergency didn't concern Mickey, since Marshall had said he and Lily would be gone from New York for a few days. Maybe Marshall's mom had been in a minor car accident, or one of his brothers, and Ted just chalked up the franticness of Marshall's tone of voice to the fact that whatever this emergency was, it came at a very bad time, when he and Lily were swamped with preparations to move to Italy in just a few weeks.

Marshall and Lily had assured him that everyone was fine, the move to Italy was still on, and still on schedule, and then turned the conversation to Chicago, asking how Ted liked it there and what his apartment was like and how his job was going and if he'd met anybody.

Ted told them no, he hadn't met anybody in Chicago. What he didn't tell them was that he wasn't looking for anybody in Chicago. And he also didn't tell them about Tracy.

Tracy McConnell turned out to be the biggest, best surprise of Ted's whole life.

The night Ted met Tracy was the darkest hour of his life. He had lost what he was sure was his last chance with Robin, and he had eventually admitted to himself that he had never really had a chance with her. She loved Barney. And Robin Scherbatsky did not take love lightly. Neither did Barney, for that matter. Ted made a lot of noise about wanting love, and he had thought he was in love a couple of dozen times before. Indeed, it was love that he felt for several of the girls and women he had been with, including Robin, but the love was never the kind that would last a lifetime. It wasn't the Marshall and Lily kind of love. (He wasn't evolved enough yet to admit that that lifetime love was also the Barney and Robin kind of love.)

And when he had been alone, wondering if he had driven away the four people closest to him in the world with his desperate and jackassed behavior, Tracy appeared, holding her yellow umbrella above his soaked head and listening when he told her what he had done and what had happened, without prejudice or judgment. He felt a connection with her that night, and was glad when she put her number in his phone and when she showed up at the airport the next day to see him off to Chicago. They had just missed meeting several times over the years: at the club on St. Patrick's Day where Tracy left her umbrella and Ted took it; at Columbia, where Ted mistakenly taught Tracy's Economics 305 class for one day; and they eventually learned that Ted had dated Tracy's ex-roommate Cindy, which solved the mystery of how Tracy got the yellow umbrella back, since Ted had left it there the night he and Cindy broke up.

Tracy was a friend when Ted wasn't sure he had any of those left in the world, and despite the 2000 miles (give or take a couple of hundred miles) separating them geographically, he and Tracy were in touch every day. They texted each other, they Skyped, they talked on the phone, they emailed, and Ted even reactivated his old Instant Messenger, which he hadn't used in years. He half expected Tracy to tease him about his screen name, RenaissanceFaireMan98 (the '98' for the first Renaissance Fair he had attended), but she got excited about it, because it turned out that Tracy enjoyed attending renaissance fairs herself. Tracy's screen name was SlapThatBass84, for the year she was born, 1984, and the bass, one of the many instruments she knew how to play. Ted couldn't help being reminded of Barney the first time he saw Tracy's screen name, knowing that Barney, even now that he was happily married to Robin, would purposely mispronounce 'bass' to rhyme with 'ass' instead of 'ace,' and that was the first time he felt a pang when thinking of Barney, and the first time he realized that if things had gone differently, he would have inflicted the greatest hurt of Barney's life on him if he had succeeded in stealing Robin away from him and marrying him herself, and he didn't like the sick feeling he got in the pit of his stomach when he realized that. For his many flaws, Barney Stinson was a good and loyal friend. And Ted Mosby realized that he could not say the same about himself. And although he had long thought he was "the better man" because his sexual history was nowhere near as kinky or as voluminous as Barney's, Robin being with Barney was not just about sex, nor was it about making Ted suffer. Robin was with Barney because she truly loved him, and Barney truly loved Robin. And how could a hopeless romantic like Ted have tried to get in the way of true love?

Tracy noticed Ted's preoccupation when they Skyped later that night, and gently, she convinced him to tell her what had him so bothered, and he found it was easy to unburden himself to her. As always, Tracy listened without judgment or prejudice, and Ted told her everything: the whole saga of Barney and Robin, his part in it, and what the past two months alone in Chicago, and not in contact with them, not even asking Marshall and Lily about them, though he knew Marshall and Lily would know, had made him realize about himself and about Barney and Robin.

"It sounds like you're letting go of Robin for real," Tracy said finally.

"I am. I finally am," Ted realized. "Maybe this means someday, I can salvage my friendship with her and Barney."

"I'm sure they'll forgive you eventually," Tracy said. "I would."

"Yeah, but you like me," Ted replied. "I'm not so sure they do anymore."

Tracy just smiled. "Yes, I do. And if I'm reading the signs correctly, I think you like me too."

"I do," Ted assured her. "I wouldn't have made it through these past few months if not for you, Tracy."

"I'm glad I found you at that train station in the pouring rain, too," Tracy said. "I've never known anyone who liked renaissance fairs the way I do. Among other things."

Ted and Tracy's friendship blossomed and deepened all that summer and fall over the phone and the computer. The geographical distance that had contributed to killing Ted's first relationship with Victoria years before was only a minor inconvenience in his relationship with Tracy. They shared the minutiae of their lives and the big things too, forming a close bond in the process. Tracy became Ted's go-to person for everything. In effect, she became his best friend. They talked every day, whether it was by text, email, instant message, Skype, or on the phone. By Labor Day, they were talking on the phone every night before they went to bed, and a few times, they even fell asleep talking to each other.

The first week in October, Ted finally got up the nerve to ask Tracy if he could come and see her in New York. She agreed and invited him to come and stay on her couch that weekend, and he accepted her invitation. It was his first trip back to New York since he had left town the morning after Barney and Robin's wedding.

She met him at the airport, and they would later agree that each of them had been afraid that things would be awkward when they saw each other in person after all those months, after spending only one night with each other in person, at the Farhampton train station.

But things were not awkward at all. Ted walked off the plane and right into Tracy's warm, welcoming hug. He took her to the McLaren's where he used to hang out with Marshall and Lily and Barney and Robin. Tracy was surprised to learn there was another McLaren's, and she then took Ted to her McLaren's, a place she hadn't set foot in since the night of her twenty-first birthday, the night Max died. Ted saw that it was hard for Tracy to be back there, and suggested they leave, telling her, "You don't have to do this."

But she looked at him determinedly and said, "Yes, I do. Even if I never come back to this McLaren's again after today, I** have **to do this, Ted. I have to face this place and find a way to get past the worst memory I ever made here." Ted knew she was referring to the phone call she had received outside this McLaren's about Max's accident and death.

It was more than that, though. Tracy was back at this McLaren's because she knew she needed to get past the night Max died not just for herself, but for her and Ted, because by this time, Tracy knew that she was in love with Ted Mosby, and she was hoping with all her might that he might fall in love with her too.

Looking into Tracy's eyes across the booth at the other McLaren's, seeing both the vulnerability and the determination there, but above all, seeing what looked to him like it might just be love, Ted was thrown, because he had realized along about night six of Tracy being the last person he talked to on the phone before falling asleep that he was in love with her.

But it wasn't the realization that he was in love with Tracy that threw Ted.

It was the knowledge that his relationship with Tracy hadn't gone at all the way any of his other relationships had gone. Ted had committed no grand gestures for Tracy; there were no stolen blue French horns, no spiriting her away from her wedding to someone else. They didn't fight about their goals, nor did her goals contradict his, as Zoey's had. This was basically their first date. He had told her things he hadn't even told Marshall, and she knew things about him that none of the other women he had dated had ever known, not even Robin, his self-confessed number one relationship, or Stella, whom he would have married if she hadn't left him at the altar for Tony.

Maybe all of the grand gestures and romantic trappings were just that: gestures and trappings. Ted had long thought of himself as the romance king, especially among his friends. Marshall's greatest acts of love towards Lily had been small compared to the things Ted had done for love. Videotaping himself singing Lily her night-night song, picking her up at the airport... Only once did he show up with a marching band. That was probably the grandest gesture Marshall had ever made. And though Barney was known to do big things for Robin, like their Canadian-themed rehearsal dinner, in the end everything Barney did for Robin was geared specifically toward Robin, and what Barney knew she would like and what Barney knew had meaning for her, unlike all of his ridiculous plays, which were generic enough to be run on any random woman Barney found at the bar or on the street.

Ted had felt compelled to make all these grand gestures and do all these big things in an effort to be romantic and in the name of love because in the end, that was all he really had to offer. Marshall and Lily loved each other faults and all; Barney and Robin loved each other faults and all. Ted had never loved any woman faults and all, and had never had any woman love him faults and all.

But maybe Tracy could love him faults and all. She already knew almost everything there was to know about him, and he would gladly tell her the rest of it. Their relationship was built on a firm foundation of friendship. They had been having long conversations for the past five months, getting to know each other in a way Ted had never gotten to know any other woman he had ever dated, and a way he had never let any other woman he had ever dated, including Robin, get to know him.

"Penny for your thoughts." Tracy's voice broke through Ted's reverie.

He looked at her and smiled. "I was just thinking how amazing you are." That was true, because he did think that Tracy was the most amazing person he had ever known.

"Me?" Tracy asked, surprised. "Amazing? I don't feel very amazing right now."

Ted stood up and held his hand out to Tracy then. "Trust me, you are," he assured her firmly. "Are you ready to get out of here?"

"Yes," she replied emphatically, rising from the booth and taking his hand. "Let's go home."

They held hands all the way back to Tracy's apartment. They didn't talk much on the way back there. When they got there, Tracy unlocked the door, and when they got inside, Ted headed straight for the kitchen. Tracy followed him and watched as he put on water for tea and got out her favorite mug, which he had seen her drinking from when they were Skyping, an old, somewhat chipped blue stoneware mug that said "Despite a decade of inflation, I still dig your supply curve." It had been one of her first gifts from Max, which Ted also knew.

"Where do you keep your tea?" Ted asked.

Tracy was deeply moved, realizing that Ted knew her well enough to know that she liked a hot cup of tea when she was feeling down, and that the mug from Max was her favorite mug.

Instead of telling or showing Ted where she kept her tea, she took the two steps across the small kitchen to close the distance between them, framed his face in her hands, and kissed him. It took literally one second for him to start kissing her back.

It was their first kiss.

When they broke the kiss, they stood there with their eyes closed, their foreheads touching, and Tracy's hands still gently holding Ted's face. They stood there like that until the tea kettle started whistling.

Tracy drew back and belatedly realized that Ted's arms were around her waist. "The tea is in the cupboard next to the sink," she said softly.

Ted reluctantly released Tracy and went to get the tea, fixing her a steaming mug, which she gratefully accepted. "Thank you," she said.

Ted could hold back no longer. "Will you be my girlfriend?" he blurted as Tracy took a careful sip of her tea.

She lowered the mug, swallowed, and smiled a smile he had never seen before. "I thought you'd never ask," she said happily. She set the mug down and backed Ted against the sink, then stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed him again, and Ted happily lost himself in Tracy's kisses, inwardly rejoicing that she was officially his girlfriend now.

And no grand gestures were required of him, then or ever.


	9. Love Song

And so began Ted and Tracy spending every weekend together. Sometimes he flew to New York; sometimes she flew to Chicago. But from Ted's first weekend visit to New York, not one weekend went by that they were not together.

After five of these weekends, Ted set his mind to coming up with the biggest and best way to declare his love to Tracy for the first time. (Old habits die hard.)

(And okay, the old Ted hadn't completely gone away either; his first thought of the biggest and best way to declare his love to Tracy for the first time came after their second weekend together, but he talked himself out of doing it immediately. He managed to wait another three weeks.)

While Ted was packing Thursday night for his trip to New York to see Tracy the next night, he remembered Robin's locket, which he hadn't returned to her when she married Barney because he'd been too busy trying to convince her to run off to Chicago and marry him instead.

He was completely in love with Tracy now. He had no doubts at all that she was the woman he was meant to be with for the rest of his life. And the intervening months had shown him that all of his friends were right: his love for Robin was not the kind of love that would last. He had been so convinced he would never get over her (he could hear Robin and Barney both mocking him in his head: "What are you, a 13-year-old girl, Ted?"), and now he was in love with a smart, feisty, funny, amazing, sweet, wonderful, beautiful woman who loved him back. At least, he was pretty sure she loved him back. They hadn't actually said it to each other yet, but Ted was almost one hundred percent sure that Tracy loved him, and he **was **one hundred percent sure that he loved her.

Ted was now embarrassed by his behavior on Barney and Robin's wedding day. It was the desperate act of a desperate man who thought his one best chance at love and commitment was about to walk down the aisle with another man. If he'd known that he would meet Tracy mere hours after alienating Robin and Barney, and making the biggest ass that he had ever made of himself over Robin in all the years he'd known her, he never would have proposed to Robin on bended knee right before her wedding to Barney.

He didn't even know if Robin and Barney would ever forgive him or be his friends again. He hadn't spoken to them since that fateful night in Farhampton at the church.

But he did know one thing: he didn't need Robin's locket anymore. He never should have kept it in the first place.

It was time to give this back to Robin.

Okay, **send** it back to Robin, since he probably still wasn't welcome at her and Barney's apartment.

Ted briefly agonized over whether or not to include a note with the locket. Ultimately he decided against it, because he couldn't think of any way to be brief in what he needed to say to them, so he just put the locket in a box, wrapped it, addressed it, and overnighted it to Barney and Robin's apartment in New York.

Then he turned his full attention to his own impending trip to New York to see Tracy.

Saturday night, Tracy's band was playing at a pub in the Village, and Ted eagerly went along to see The Superfreakonomics in person.

Ted knew he was biased, being in love with the bass player, but he thought Tracy's band was the best live band he'd ever heard that wasn't famous.

He enjoyed the show, a mix of covers of songs from the '80s and '90s and early '00s with a few original compositions of the band thrown in, but he was completely blown away by what happened near the end of the set.

Tracy stepped up to the lead microphone after the latest round of applause petered out, met Ted's smiling gaze, and spoke directly into the microphone. "We've never been the kind of band to tell stories or do dedications before playing a song, but there's a first time for everything, and tonight is it. Ted, this is for you."

The band did a quick four-count before launching into a ballad with a distinctive bassline. Tracy, her heart in her eyes, set the beat with her bass and sang lead, the keyboard, electric guitar, and drums backing her up perfectly.

_"Whenever I'm alone with you_

_You make me feel like I am home again_

_Whenever I'm alone with you_

_You make me feel like I am whole again"_

The crowd surged to their feet in front of the small stage where The Superfreakonomics played, and several of them began swaying back and forth to the song. Ted remained seated in his chair front row center, looking up at Tracy with mingled surprise and adoration. She was serenading him. Him!

Never before had a woman made such a grand gesture for Ted in the name of love. (He didn't count Victoria leaving Klaus at the altar, because he had always felt he had basically talked her into it; in hindsight, Ted felt that Victoria didn't really want to marry Klaus, Ted gave her the perfect out, and she took it.)

Not that Ted needed grand gestures from Tracy. After all, he hadn't committed any for her, and she didn't seem to want or expect them. But for once, it felt really good to be on the receiving end of a grand gesture for love.

_"Whenever I'm alone with you_

_You make me feel like I am young again_

_Whenever I'm alone with you_

_You make me feel like I am fun again"_

Having lost all contact with Barney and Robin, and with Marshall and Lily in Italy and himself in Chicago most of the week, Ted hadn't felt like a very fun guy (not that he ever really had been the fun guy; that was Barney) for a very long time. But whenever he was with Tracy, she made him feel like fun again. She made him feel young, and alive, and like the luckiest guy on the face of the planet.

Ted felt tears come to his eyes, ignoring the inner Barney and Robin who were mocking him for crying like a little girl, as Tracy continued singing to him from the stage of the bar.

_"However far away_

_I will always love you_

_However long I stay_

_I will always love you_

_Whatever words I say_

_I will always love you_

_I will always love you"_

Music had always been a balm to Tracy's soul. No matter what she was feeling at any moment, happy, sad, angry, confused, worried, heartbroken or romantic, Tracy could always find at least one song to fit her mood, whatever that mood might be. She used to sing for Max all the time, but in all the time they were together, she had never sung him a song that felt this intensely personal. Robert Smith's lyrics said everything that Ted made her feel, and she knew that she was head over heels in love with him, in a way that she had never loved even Max, and that she wanted to let him know that. And she didn't want to tell him she loved him over the phone or on Skype; they had to be together in person, looking into each other's eyes. Tracy was almost completely certain that Ted loved her too, even though he hadn't said it yet. This didn't feel like forcing the issue, though. It just felt right. She wanted to tell Ted she loved him, and this was how she chose to declare her love to him for the first time. Besides being a balm to her soul, music was one of Tracy's comfort zones. She was never braver, happier, or more alive than when she was singing...except when she was with Ted. Telling him she loved him for the first time with a serenade, right now, tonight, was the most right thing Tracy had done in a very long time.

She beamed at Ted as she went into the last verse and final chorus, and he was looking back at her with moist eyes and a mile-wide smile.

_"Whenever I'm alone with you_

_You make me feel like I am free again_

_Whenever I'm alone with you_

_You make me feel like I am clean again_

_"However far away_

_I will always love you_

_However long I stay_

_I will always love you_

_Whatever words I say_

_I will always love you_

_I will always love you"_

The bar exploded in applause and cheers as The Superfreakonomics played the final crashing chord, people jumping up and down, whistling, cheering and hooting, but Tracy only had eyes for Ted. Ted got to his feet and took the stage, grabbing Tracy's hand and pulling her off to the side in an attempt at privacy.

They just stood there looking at each other for a long moment, feeling like the only two people in the world (and in that bar), Tracy still holding her bass, Ted still holding her hand, the noises of the crowded bar around them completely muted to their ears.

Then Ted touched Tracy's hair with the hand that wasn't holding hers and said, "I love you too. And I always will."

Tracy smiled a smile that Ted had never seen on her or anyone else before, and, shoving her bass to one side, she stepped into Ted and met him in a long, slow, sweet kiss.

And that was the night that Ted Mosby knew he would someday marry Tracy McConnell, and the night that Tracy McConnell knew she would someday marry Ted Mosby.

It was also the night that Robin got her locket back from Ted via FedEx, and she got an even greater gift that night than that old locket. Actually, she got an even greater gift that night because of that old locket.

* * *

_**Thanks for sticking with me through a longer-than-intended hiatus from this story. I know exactly where everything is going and exactly where everybody is going to end up. I didn't originally think this chapter was going to be almost all Tracy and Ted, but my main rule of writing is to follow the muse wherever it leads, and this is where it led. We will return to Barney and Robin in the next chapter. I'm not sure exactly how many more chapters remain before this story is finished, but I had the whole thing planned out before I posted one word here, and in my head, and this story, everyone in our band of friends ends up exactly where they're meant to be. Thanks for reading, and I hope you keep liking what I come up with for Barney and Robin, Marshall and Lily, and Tracy and Ted. **_

_**Oh, and the song Tracy serenades Ted with in this chapter is "Lovesong" by The Cure. (I grew up in the '80s and I'm proud of it! Adele remade it a few years ago, but I prefer The Cure's version, which lead singer Robert Smith really did write for his wife, and which I chose partly because if you listen to the album version by The Cure, you can distinctly hear the bass in it, and I wanted a song with a distinctive bass part for Tracy to play, so this one fit the bill.)**_


End file.
